NOAA Awards More than $630,000 to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

NOAA AWARDS MORE THAN $630,000 TO VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC
INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded a grant totaling $633,100 to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

This grant will fund horseshoe crab trawl survey in the mid-Atlantic region that aims to determine horseshoe crab distribution and abundance annually within the mid-Atlantic region. In addition, this study will describe horseshoe crab population demographics annually within the mid-Atlantic region.

“NOAA and the Bush Administration are constantly working to improve the understanding of our environment to strengthen regional initiatives, such as horseshoe crab research in the mid-Altantic,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “This grant to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University will help advance knowledge critical to those efforts in the mid-Atlantic region.“

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is a publicly supported land-grant university, which serves the Commonwealth of Virginia, the United States and the international community by generating and disseminating knowledge in the humanities, arts, social sciences, scientific and professional disciplines through instruction, research and extension.

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. To learn more about NOAA, please visit http://www.noaa.gov.