NOAA Awards $500,000 to Guam for Coral Reef Conservation

Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo today announced that Guam is a recipient of about $500,000 for coral reef conservation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has announced over $9.3 million in recommended funding for projects focused on researching climate change, pollution and fishing impacts. Of the $9.3 million, the University of Guam will receive about $107,000 out of $429,026 awarded to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and about $74,800 for outlook reporting to inform resilience-based management and raise climate vulnerability awareness in Guam and CNMI. The Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans, Coastal Management will receive $371,178 for Guam’s State and Territory Coral Reef Conservation Cooperative Agreement.

The grant funding awarded to Guam falls under the categories of State and Territorial Coral Reef Conservation Cooperative Agreements to sustain coral reef management and monitoring in the states and territories of American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands, and Fishery Management Council Coral Reef Conservation Cooperative Agreements to support sustainable coral fisheries management in cooperation with regional fishery management councils. These projects broadly support NOAA’s goal to target primary threats to coral reefs including global climate change, land-based sources of pollution and unsustainable fishing practices, and highly threatened coral regions and watersheds.

“I am pleased that Guam, through Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans and the University of Guam has received this funding from NOAA for coral reef conservation. Coral reefs are essential to our island and our way of life.” said Congresswoman Bordallo. “These funds will help keep UOG at the forefront of coral reef research in the region and improve our resilience against climate change. I advocated for strong funding for NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program during this year’s appropriations process. I commend our local stakeholders for securing these funds and look forward to the research and work that will be done for our community.”