NOAA Fisheries Awards $3.8 Million for Marine Mammal Rescue Efforts through Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grants

NOAA Fisheries has awarded 44 grants, totaling more than $3.8 million for marine mammal rescue efforts. We awarded the grants, provided through the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue and Assistance Grant Program to our partners in 19 states and two tribes.

Grants Awarded

Recipients are from the Marine Mammal Stranding Response Network and the National Marine Mammal Entanglement Response Network . They include collaborators specializing in marine mammal health. Regional breakdown of the fiscal year 2025 Prescott Grant awards include:

• Alaska Region: 2 awards, totaling $170,568
• Greater Atlantic Region: 12 awards, totaling $980,482
• Pacific Islands Region: 2 awards, totaling $198,839
• Southeast Region: 9 awards, totaling $714,149
• West Coast Region: 11 awards, totaling $1,079,105
• National: 8 awards, totaling $669,538, for projects that meet national research or service needs (diagnostics, tagging, etc.)

Importance of Prescott

Since the Prescott Grant Program was established in 2000, we have awarded more than $83.2 million to partners. Our grant recipient partners have leveraged an additional $34.5 million. Together we have built a strong network of more than 120 trained and professional response organizations and responded to more than 100,000 stranded marine mammals. Additional awards have funded marine mammal entanglement response and investigations into marine mammal health including diagnostics and scientific research.

These grants support a core mission of NOAA Fisheries: the conservation and recovery of protected marine species. This competitive funding improves marine mammal stranding response and investigation capabilities nationwide and supports the goals of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program .

In recent years, Prescott grants have supported activities including:

• Large whale stranding events
• Marine mammal entanglement response
• Mass stranding events
• Disease outbreaks