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Grant Money Awarded to 

 North Carolina Fishers 



Nearly $800,000 in state funds 

 has been approved for research that 

 will yield new information about North 

 Carolina's fisheries 

 resources and give 

 insights into how they 

 can be better utilized 

 and managed. 



After extensive 

 reviews, 32 projects 

 were funded from a total 

 of 87 proposed to the 

 Fishery Resource Grant 

 Program; two others 

 have conditional 

 approval if the appli- 

 cants agree to make 

 some revisions. 



"We were pleased 

 with the quality of the 

 proposals submitted," 

 says Ron Hodson, 

 interim director of the 

 North Carolina Sea 

 Grant College Program, 

 which is administering 

 the program. 'This is the 

 type of information that 

 the Division of Marine 

 Fisheries and the Marine 

 Fisheries Commission need to better 

 understand and manage fisheries. And 

 more importantly, this program 

 involves fishermen in developing the 

 needed information." 



Sea Grant assembled a steering 

 committee of leaders from coastal 

 fishing organizations and agencies to 

 objectively review the proposals. The 

 Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC) 

 made the final funding decisions. 



The program pays for qualified 

 research by people in the fishing 

 industries, including commercial or 

 recreational fishing, aquaculture or 

 mariculture, and seafood handling 

 (processors or dealers). The funds are 

 dispersed among four priority areas 



identified by the state legislature: new 

 fisheries equipment or gear, environ- 

 mental pilot studies, aquaculture or 

 mariculture and seafood technology. 



The selected projects can be 

 categorized by: 



2 (6 percent) are environmental 

 pilot studies, 



2 (6 percent) are in seafood 

 technology. 



Applicants 



• 28 (82 percent of the 

 total) do not represent 

 academia, 



•6(18 percent) do 

 represent academia. 



Region (reflecting Division of Marine 

 Fisheries regions) 



9 (26 percent of the total) are in the 

 northern region, 



9 (26 percent) are in the southern 

 region, 



8 (24 percent) are in the central 

 region, 



7 (21 percent) are in the Pamlico 

 region, 



1 (3 percent) covers all regions. 



Priority areas for funding 

 21 (62 percent of the total) focus on 

 fisheries equipment or gear, 



9 (26 percent) focus on aquaculture 

 or mariculture, 



Joe Clem, a member 

 of the MFC and chair 

 of its committee on 

 resource management 

 grants, says he was 

 pleased that the prepon- 

 derance of funding was 

 awarded to fishermen. . 

 "Those who have been 

 involved in this, the third 

 year of the program, 

 continue to see progress 

 as more fishermen are 

 benefiting from partici- 

 pation," he says. 



However, not all of 

 the money available was 

 awarded because the 

 commission limited 

 funding to those propos- 

 als with the highest 

 probability of success, Clem says. 



"We chose to support quality 

 proposals that offered broad benefit," 

 he says. "We really wanted proposals 

 that would make the greatest contribu- 

 tion to improving utilization and 

 management of the fisheries re- 

 sources." 



The program was established by 

 the legislature in 1994 as the first U.S. 

 program of its kind. It was based on the 

 principle that people in the industry 

 often have the best ideas for enhancing 

 fisheries but lack the financial re- 

 sources to experiment with innova- 

 tions. The intent is to invest in the 

 ideas of the fishing public through fair 

 and competitive methods. 



24 MAY/JUNE 1997 



