November 14, 2024 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
NOAA Fisheries awarded more than $9.2 million in grants funded by the Inflation Reduction Act to academic partners that will help recover threatened and endangered Pacific salmon. These grants are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s unprecedented $27 million investment in Pacific salmon recovery science. They will support research that will build upon decades of knowledge from NOAA and its state, tribal, and academic partners.
“The Inflation Reduction Act funding allows us to engage our academic partners and make rapid scientific advancement in critical areas,” said Steve Lindley, director of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center’s Fisheries Ecology Division in Santa Cruz, California.
We awarded six grants to four NOAA cooperative institutes. The largest ($7.48 million) was awarded to the University of California at Santa Cruz via the Cooperative Institute for Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Systems. UC Santa Cruz researchers across disciplines, including molecular ecology, fisheries biology, and climate science, will work closely with NOAA scientists through the Fisheries Collaborative Program. They will produce transformative research in support of our science-based salmon recovery plans.
“Transforming the future for Pacific salmon requires new thinking, and that is where the UCSC-NOAA collaboration really shines,” said Eric Palkovacs, professor and director of the Fisheries Collaborative Program at UC Santa Cruz. “We have fully integrated research teams working on the biggest challenges, developing and field testing new restoration approaches.”
Advancing Science to Save Salmon
Salmon exist across a range of ecosystems, from mountain rivers to the open ocean, and face a variety of threats throughout their lives. This presents enormous challenges for their recovery. This funding will help scientists better understand these pressures, strengthening current knowledge and advancing the cutting edge of salmon science to support recovery.
“The aim of the work is to create new tools that can evaluate the effectiveness and cost of different recovery strategies and fill critical information gaps,” said Lindley. “This will include work across all the habitats that salmon use over the course of their lives—rivers, estuaries, and the ocean.”
The grants include support for undergraduate and graduate student researchers and postdoctoral scholars, representing a crucial investment by NOAA in training the next generation of scientists.
“I am very fortunate to collaborate with such an incredible network of scientists at both UC Santa Cruz and NOAA,” said Paige Gardner, a graduate student researcher at UC Santa Cruz.
Gardner is studying the genetic underpinnings of heat tolerance in steelhead to reveal which populations might be most resilient to climate change. Her work, alongside dozens of other Inflation Reduction Act-funded projects, will inform cohesive tools to improve forecasts of salmon returns and identify impactful recovery actions.
Partners in Salmon Recovery
The other cooperative institutes are located at the University of Washington, Oregon State University, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. NOAA partners with 16 cooperative institutes, which include 80 universities across 33 states.
Salmon are a vital resource along the West Coast, with important cultural, economic and ecosystem benefits. Overfishing, climate change, predation, and loss of habitat have pushed some populations to the brink of extinction. Currently, salmon and steelhead are considered threatened or endangered across much of their native range along the Pacific Coast. NOAA is striving to bring these populations back to sustainable levels to support fisheries, tribal treaty obligations, and ecosystems.