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BOEMRE Awards $858,900 to Study Health of
Important Subsistence Fish Populations in Alaska
Project Will Obtain Baseline Data for Arctic Fish Species
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE)
announced today that it has awarded a Coastal Impact Assistance
Program (CIAP) grant for $858,900 to the state of Alaska’s
Department of Natural Resources. These funds will enable the
department to study the life cycles of a variety of fish
species, used for subsistence purposes by area residents, that
inhabit the waters around Admiralty Bay, about 40 miles
southwest of Barrow on Alaska’s far northern coast. The studies funded by this CIAP
grant will focus on the Chip/Ikpikpu, Topagoruk, Meade and Inaru
river systems, which together form a web of small waterways that
drain into Admiralty Bay. This ecosystem is of vital importance
to the region's local inhabitants, who rely on its flora and
fauna to support a largely subsistence-based lifestyle.
Created by the Energy Policy Act
of 2005, CIAP provides funding to the six Outer Continental
Shelf (OCS) oil- and gas-producing states to conserve and
protect the coastal environment. CIAP is an ongoing program with
grant funding allocated based on the offshore energy revenues
collected by the United States.
“With this grant, BOEMRE
continues to support the collection of the critical scientific
data that stakeholders and decision-makers need,” said BOEMRE
Director Michael R. Bromwich. “We have been funding research on
important subsistence fisheries in similar ecosystems for more
then ten years, and this grant will enable Alaska’s Department
of Natural Resources to significantly add to that body of
knowledge.”
Researchers will sample local
fish populations using traps, gill nets, seine nets and a
variety of other methods. Collected fish will be analyzed for
age/weight relationships, population size, age structure and
other important population characteristics. Researchers will
also track broad whitefish, one of the region’s most important
subsistence species, using radio telemetry.
CIAP received $250 million in
appropriated funds for each of the fiscal years 2007-2010, to be
disbursed to six eligible OCS oil and gas producing states:
Mississippi, Alabama, Alaska, California, Louisiana and Texas. Contact:
BOEMRE Public
Affairs-Alaska
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