NOAA’s Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group announced a partnership agreement with the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (GSMFC) of Ocean Springs, Miss., to restore recreational fish species impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The partnership will focus on the development of best practices for fish descender devices by distributing FDDs to recreational anglers and providing information on their use. Surveys on any changes in anglers’ perspectives of FDDs, how they’re being used, and the devices’ effectiveness will be conducted to track project success. The first award of this new 5-year agreement is $870,592. It will fund the commission’s work with anglers as part of a project to help restore chances of life for catch-and-release reef fish. The project is entitled “Reduction of Post-release Mortality from Barotrauma in Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Recreational Fisheries.” The project includes Gulf-wide collaboration with the commission, anglers, academics, and other stakeholders. GSMFC is one of three in the U.S. that administers cooperative state-federal marine fisheries resources programs. The project, estimated to cost $30M over eight years, was approved in the Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group’s Restoration Plan 2 released last December. That plan included 18 projects totaling almost $226M to help restore fish, sea turtles, marine mammals and deep-sea coral habitat injured by the 2010 BP oil spill. (Source: Deepwater Horizon NRDA 10/14/20)
No comments:
Post a Comment