The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a $1.79 million grant to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (the council) as part of a cooperative agreement to support strategic planning and program coordination. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department.

The grant includes a one-time supplemental award to support the council’s expanded tasks to assist the Pacific Islands region to coordinate and organize strategic planning and program coordination activities.

“Ongoing grants, such as this grant to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, allow NOAA to support and enhance partnerships that protect valuable fishery resources and promote economic opportunities,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “NOAA and the Bush Administration are committed to working with local and regional partners to improve our understanding of Pacific fisheries.”

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is the policy-making organization for the management of fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (generally 3 to 200 miles offshore) around the Territory of American Samoa, Territory of Guam, State of Hawaii, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and U.S. Pacific island possessions, an area of nearly 1.5 million square miles. The council is one of eight regional councils in the United States, which were established under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. The main task of the council is to protect fishery resources while maintaining opportunities for domestic fishing at sustainable levels of effort and yield.

Each year, NOAA awards approximately $900 million in grants to members of the academic, scientific and business communities to assist the agency in fulfilling its mission to study the Earth’s natural systems in order to predict environmental change, manage ocean resources, protect life and property, and provide decision makers with reliable scientific information. NOAA goals and programs reflect a commitment to these basic responsibilities of science and service to the nation for the past 33 years.

The Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources.

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