The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program provides grants or cooperative agreements to eligible stranding network participants for: (1) recovery and treatment (i.e., rehabilitation) of stranded marine mammals; (2) data collection from living or dead stranded marine mammals; and (3) facility upgrades, operation costs, and staffing needs directly related to the recovery and treatment of stranded marine mammals and the collection of data from living or dead stranded marine mammals.
To date, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has awarded more than $3.1 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 Assistance Grant Program. The goal of the program is to improve our nation’s ability to rescue, rehabilitate, and conserve marine mammals. 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)), the Service will give preference to those facilities with established records for rescuing or rehabilitating sick and stranded manatees, sea otters, Pacific walruses, and polar bears within waters and appropriate stranding regions of the United States. 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 2023 Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program – Status: Open
The Service is accepting proposals for the FY 2023 award cycle between December 23, 2022 and March 30, 2023. View the full announcement.
