The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue and Response Grant Program provides grants or cooperative agreements to eligible stranding network participants or stranding network collaborators to support: (A) the recovery, care, or treatment of sick, injured, or entangled marine mammals; (B) responses to marine mammal stranding events that require emergency assistance; (C) the collection of data and samples from living or dead stranded marine mammals for scientific research or assessments regarding marine mammal health; (D) facility operating costs that are directly related to activities described in (A), (B), or (C); and (E) development of stranding network capacity, including training for emergency response, where facilities do not exist or are sparse.
To date, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has awarded more than $7.3 million in funding to conservation organizations and state agencies through the program.
History
The Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Act of 2000 amended the Marine Mammal Protection Act to establish the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue and Response Grant Program. The goal of the program is to improve our nation’s ability to rescue, rehabilitate, and conserve marine mammals. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has distributed Prescott grants since 2001. In 2020, Congress began allocating funds to the Service to implement the program.
Funds provided under the program are distributed, to the greatest extent practicable, equitably among the designated stranding regions. For the Service, this refers to the geographic regions where West Indian manatees, sea otters, Pacific walruses, and polar bears occur.
View award summaries from previous years:
Who Can Apply
Eligible applicants are currently active, authorized marine mammal stranding participants or researchers. Eligible applicants must be:
- a participant in a marine mammal stranding network and in good standing; or
- state, local, or eligible federal government personnel or tribal personnel (pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act section 109(h) [16 U.S.C. 1379(h)]).
An applicant cannot be a current Department of the Interior or Department of Commerce employee.
As required under the Prescott Grant Program (section 408(a)((2)(A))), priority is to be given to applications focusing on marine mammal strandings. Funds provided under the program are distributed, to the greatest extent practicable, equitably among the designated stranding regions.
Process
Proposals should be submitted through Grants.gov, the online portal to all federal grant opportunities. Please note that you must be registered with Grants.gov in order to apply for funding online, and the registration process can take several days. See further information on how to register with Grants.gov.
Detailed guidance on how to prepare proposals is provided in the federal funding opportunity. This document should be read carefully to ensure that proposals meet eligibility requirements and are complete upon submission. Complete instructions for preparing and submitting proposals are also available through Grants.gov.
Get Started
FY 2024 Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue and Response Grant Program – Status: CLOSED
The Service has finished accepting proposals for the FY 2024 award cycle as of March 15, 2024.
View the FY 2024 full announcement.
