2008/2009 Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program

The summary for the 2008/2009 Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

2008/2009 Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program: NMFS announces that for 2008 and 2009 Atlantic herring (herring) fishing years (January 1 - December 31), the New England Fishery Management Council (Council), in consultation with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission), has set aside of up to 3 percent of the total allowable catch (TAC) from herring management areas 1A, 1B, 2, and 3, to be used for research endeavors under a research set-aside (RSA) program. The RSA program provides a mechanism to fund research and compensate vessel owners through the sale of fish harvested under the research quota. Vessels participating in research and/or compensation activities of an approved research project may be authorized by the Northeast Regional Administrator, NMFS, to harvest and land fish in excess of imposed trip limits or during fishery closures. Landings from such trips shall be sold to generate funds that help defray the costs associated with the approved research projects. No Federal funds are provided for research under this notification. Priority shall be given to funding research proposals in the following general subject areas: (1) Efforts to define localized herring depletion on a spatial and temporal scale, (2) assessment of bycatch/discards in the directed herring fishery, (3) commercial herring catch sampling programs and portside bycatch surveys, (4) herring predator/prey information synthesis and investigations addressing information gaps, (5) development and testing of herring gear modifications to minimize interactions with non-target species in the herring fishery, and (6) development of tagging and morphometric studies to explore uncertainties in herring stock structure, stock mixing rates, and the impacts of harvest mortality on different components of the stock. For a detailed description of the research priorities, see 2008/2009 Atlantic Herring RSA Program Research Priorities in full text at http://www.grants.gov, Federal Funding Opportunity# NMFS-NEFSC-2008-2001107.