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Young Fishermen's Development Program

Training, education, outreach, and technical assistance initiatives 

Sea Grant makes competitive matching grants to support local and regional training, education, outreach, and technical assistance initiatives for young fishermen.

The Young Fishermen’s Development Act

In December 2020, Congress passed the Young Fishermen’s Development Act (Public Law No.116-289). The summary of the act is stated on Congress.gov as follows:

This bill directs the National Sea Grant Office in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a Young Fishermen's Development Grant Program to provide training, education, outreach, and technical assistance initiatives for young fishermen. The office shall make competitive matching grants to support local and regional training, education, outreach, and technical assistance initiatives for young fishermen, including programs, workshops, and services related to (1) seamanship, navigation, electronics, and safety; (2) vessel and engine care, maintenance, and repair; and (3) sustainable fishing practices. Grant recipients must be a collaborative state, tribal, local, or regionally-based network or partnership of public or private entities. Grants may not be used to purchase a fishing license, permit, quota, or other harvesting right.

Informational Highlights

Archived information below, the deadline for this opportunity has passed.

Funding Opportunity: FY23 Young Fishermen’s Career Development Projects

The National Sea Grant Office (NSGO) anticipates between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 of federal funds will be available to support approximately 2-5 awards in order to develop and execute local, regional, and national programs, workshops, and services to enable fishermen to enter career paths and make a living supplying seafood from our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes. Awards will be made for no more than $400,000 in federal funds per project, and may be for one or two years, though for no more than $200,000/year.

Applications require 25% non-federal match.

To be eligible to receive a grant under this program a recipient shall be a collaborative State, Tribal, local, or regionally based network or partnership of public or private entities, which may include— (A) a Sea Grant Institution; (B) a Federal or State agency or a Tribal organization; (C) a community-based nongovernmental organization; (D) fishermen’s cooperatives or associations; (E) an institution of higher education (including an institution awarding an associate’s degree), or a foundation maintained by an institution of higher education; or (F) any other appropriate entity.

Projects may benefit from engaging with the planning frameworks developed by Sea Grant programs in FY21-23.

Read the formal announcement on Grants.gov NOAA-OAR-SG-2023-2007535

Letters of intent are required in order to be eligible to submit a full proposal.

Letters of Intent Due: December 1, 2022
Full Proposals Due: February 15, 2023

Questions about this opportunity may be submitted to sg.grants@noaa.gov.

Background:

  • Sea Grant is authorized for $2M per year beginning in 2022 as stated in the law. 
  • Sea Grant held a competition in FY2021 to support the development of regional planning frameworks for implementing the YFDA.
    • To maximize coordination with federal regulators, the regions used will correspond to the NOAA Fisheries regions, plus the Great Lakes:
      • Alaska
      • Great Lakes (Lake Superior to Lake Champlain)
      • New England/Mid Atlantic (Maine to Virginia)
      • Pacific Islands (Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, and other US Pacific Island territories)
      • Southeast/Gulf of Mexico (North Carolina to Texas, including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands)
      • West Coast (Washington to California)
  • These six month long projects are intended to catalyze regional planning efforts in advance of potential future funding.

Food from the Sea Career Program Planning

Eleven projects representing regions across the U.S. were selected through the FY2021 funding opportunity. With these funds, Sea Grant programs and partners worked collaboratively with members of the fishing industry to identify training needs and develop updated and/or new resources and programming to address those needs. See some of the findings in the reports below.

Sea Grant supports the seafood industry through workforce development

Sea Grant was selected to lead the new program in part because of its previous and ongoing work to support the professional development of seafood professionals. Sea Grant’s work includes funding social science research to understand patterns and challenges associated with the seafood industry and providing job-based safety and skill training. Specific to young fisherman and early career seafood professionals, Sea Grant has many existing training and apprenticeship programs. Here are a few examples of Sea Grant’s efforts to support the development of the seafood workforce.

Seafood Workforce Development News

Education

Sea Grant Selects “Food from the Sea” Career Program Development Projects

NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program and Office of Sustainable Fisheries awarded approximately $900,000 of FY21 federal funds to support projects that will initiate “Food from the Sea'' career development programs. With these funds, Sea Grant programs and partners will work collaboratively with members of the fishing industry to identify training needs and develop updated and/or new resources and programming to address those needs.  

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