NOAA Grant Would Fund Study of Tuna, Lobster, Climate change

PORTLAND, Maine - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is recommending more than $1.3 million in federal funding for fisheries research projects in Maine.
 
The money would fund five projects. The largest grant of nearly $300,000 would fund a University of Maine project to evaluate the life history of yellowfin tuna in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.
 
Another grant of nearly $290,000 would go to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute to address the issue of "choke species'' in the era of climate change. Choke species are fish with small quotas for commercial fishermen. Catching too many of them can force fishermen to shut down operations.
 
Other projects involve the lobster population in the offshore Atlantic; the environmental possibilities of farmed kelp; and the future of fishing-dependent communities in coastal Maine.