WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is seeking proposals for grants for orca protection.
The Killer Whale Research and Conservation Program was launched in 2015 with support from SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. to study and protect orcas in the wild.
This year, Shell Oil Co. supported the program with $250,000.
Proposals are due July 14. The full request for proposals can be found at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-orcagrants. Awards are anticipated by December.
Most of the grants will be for projects that focus on the habitats used by southern resident orcas, the foundation said.
The Killer Whale Research and Conservation Program focuses on three strategies: increasing prey availability, improving habitat quality and strengthening management through research.
In the first two years, the program has awarded nine grants totaling more than $1 million, which leveraged more than $1.4 million in matching support from grantees.
In 2015, grants were awarded to the Northwest Fisheries Science Center for studies of prey availability and noise effects on orcas; the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project to study why juvenile chinook, coho and steelhead are dying in the waters of Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia; the University of California-Davis to develop a health index for orcas and to the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Center to research the impacts of prey availability and contaminants on northern and southern resident orcas.
Competitive grants are reviewed by a public-private committee of government and academic experts, and funding decisions are based on the ability of the applicant to put strategies into effect that can result in measurable conservation outcomes.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation was chartered by Congress in 1984. Working with federal, corporate and individual partners, the foundation has funded more than 4,500 organizations and committed more than $3.8 billion to conservation projects.
For more information, see www.nfwf.org.
