NOAA Awards More Than $500,000 To Alu Like, Inc. To Train Fishery Observers

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a grant totaling $550,000 to Alu Like, Inc. to support fishery employment opportunities for Native Hawaiians. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The grant will fund a project that will plan and carryout tasks that will benefit native Hawaiians and other Pacific Island and Native American communities. The immediate objectives are to broadcast information about regional fisheries and related fields through job fairs and other outreach tools to the native communities, and to provide training in ocean and marine related employment. This program will prime the interests of the Native Hawaiians and other eligible participants from the Pacific Islands and Native American communities to consider possible employment in ocean and marine related careers. Under the agreement between Alu Like and the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Alu Like will be responsible for the recruitment, screening, orientation and preparatory training, while NOAA Fisheries will provide technical assistance and guidance during the preparatory training, and will be responsible for the official Observer training for certification.

“I am proud of the years of success this program has enjoyed, and the way that it has opened the door for Native Hawaiians to participate in the management of Hawaii’s fisheries. For hundreds of years, the Native Hawaiians were stewards of the abundant marine resources we enjoy today, and I am pleased that we are working to ensure that their descendants and their wisdom will continue to play a role today,” said Senator Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii. “I hope that this outreach effort will be followed by many more as NOAA works to include the communities across the nation in the resource decisions that directly affect their day-to-day lives.”

“This program will allow Native Hawaiians to achieve economic self-sufficiency, while improving our nation’s fisheries,” 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 working to improve the understanding of our environment and to strengthen local and regional employment initiatives like Alu Like, Inc.”

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’s goals and programs reflect a commitment to these basic responsibilities of science and service to the nation for the past 34 years.

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.