Maine

Blue Planet Strategies
Reducing Entanglements of Critically Endangered Marine Life with Gear Tracking Technology (ME)
Develop an innovative gear tracking technology to be tested in the New England groundfish fishery designed to track gear anchored at the sea floor connected by vertical line to surface buoys. Project will reduce entanglement of critically endangered marine life, reduce the amount of derelict gear and advance gear tracking technology.
$231,000

Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance
Pre-Implementation of Electronic Monitoring in New England’s Groundfish Fishery (MA, ME, NH, RI)
Advance electronic monitoring in New England’s groundfish fishery by continuing operation of a successful pilot project and working with stakeholders to clarify standards and needs related to the technology. Project will engage 35 vessels to finalize electronic monitoring standards and ensure that data is effectively stored, shared, and used by regional stock assessment scientists and other data 
end users.
$524,586

Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Scaling Maximized Retention Electronic Monitoring in the Northeast Groundfish Fishery (MA, ME, NH, RI)
Expand the Maximized Retention Electronic Monitoring program by adding three to four vessels to the electronic monitoring fleet and refining in person dockside monitoring.  Project will conduct outreach to vessels, assess the economic impacts of this programs previous years for fishermen, and continue review of collected electronic monitoring data.
$405,000

Integrated Monitoring
Implementing Wireless Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Tools in New England (MA, ME, NH, RI)
Expand broadband, wireless electronic reporting to high volume fishing vessels in New England, including  ground fish vessels, limited access scallop vessels, and charter vessels. Project will demonstrate the scalability and transferability of wireless electronic monitoring technology and electronic reporting using broadband vessel monitoring system.
$229,530

Maine Audubon Society
Reconnecting Maine’s Rivers Using Field Experience to Build Stream Restoration Capacity
Provide hands-on training to surveyors, civil engineers, municipal and state road professionals and engineering students that results in replacement road-stream crossings that reconnect previously blocked stream segments. Project will replace 24 poorly functioning culverts identified on priority public lands and roads, restore 2 miles of riparian forest and restore access to 36 miles of stream for native brook trout and Atlantic salmon and reduce flood hazard risk in Maine municipalities.
$199,987

Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association
Piloting Electronic Monitoring in the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Fleet (ME)
Develop an electronic monitoring program for the northern Gulf of Maine scallop fleet to test the feasibility of electronic monitoring on small scallop vessels. Project will test the use of video recognition software for review, expand existing data collection to the Maine state water’s fishery, and refine protocols for electronic monitoring in scallop fisheries.
$95,811

Maine Coast Heritage Trust
Bagaduce Watershed Fish Passage Restoration Project (ME)
Work at two sites in one town and watershed, identified as high value habitat for American eel, alewife, river herring, rainbow smelt, a variety of migratory birds and modeled former habitat for Atlantic salmon. Project will involve many partners and community members, who create a rock ramp nature-like fishway at one site, and construct fish passage improvements, dam repairs and public safety and education infrastructure at the second site.
$250,000

Maine Coast Heritage Trust
Restoring and Monitoring Fish Passage at Snows Brook in Sedgwick, Maine
Construct and monitor a fish restoration project using a community-driven approach in Sedgwick, Maine. Project will invest in construction and monitoring to enhance existing efforts by a community network to restore fish passage along a designated evacuation route and transportation artery, thus raising awareness of this and other restoration projects in the region.
$490,000

Maine Coast Heritage Trust
Snow Brook Fish Passage Restoration Project (ME)
Replace an aging highway culvert, which for decades has blocked all fish passage to 5.5 miles of stream and 155 acres of pond habitat. Project will provide access to the freshwater refugia and spawning habitat necessary to maintain sustainable populations of alewife and blueback herring, sea-run brook trout, eel, smelt and tomcod, indirectly providing increased food supply for and benefiting many birds, mammals and fish that feed on alewife and other species within this subwatershed of the Penobscot River watershed.
$125,000

Manomet
Coordinating American Oystercatcher Recovery on the Atlantic Coast (multiple states)
Provide coordination of the American oystercatcher recovery initiative and actionable change based on lessons learned from 2009-2019 and reduce the impact of predators and human disturbance on populations of breeding shorebirds along the U.S. Atlantic coast. Project will contribute substantially to the goals of the Atlantic Flyway Business Plan.
$79,999

New England Marine Monitoring
Integrating Artificial Intelligence Algorithms to Strengthen Electronic Monitoring (MA, ME, NH, RI)
Integrate existing artificial intelligence algorithms into electronic monitoring review, transmission, and storage workflows to reduce program costs. Project will advance the artificial intelligence used in the New England Groundfish electronic monitoring fisheries to automate catch accounting and streamline data storage thus addressing management priorities.
$241,109

Project SHARE
Enhancing Instream Habitat for Brook Trout and Salmon in Narraguagus River and Tributaries (ME)
Implement instream habitat restoration projects in Downeast Maine, specifically the Narraguagus River, Northern Stream and Third Lake Stream. Project will restore 4 miles of instream habitat to benefit Atlantic salmon and native brook trout using large woody material and engage 200 community members.
$200,000

Town of Camden, Maine
Megunticook River Watershed Fish Passage and Flood Prevention Site Assessments and Design (ME)
Develop a comprehensive plan to address fish passage,  watershed connectivity barriers, flooding hazards, vulnerable infrastructure, and degraded stream and wetland habitat in the Megunticook River watershed. Project will include site assessment and alternatives analysis for six dams, and envisioning a sea wall where the river outlets to Camden Harbor.
$139,000

Town of South Thomaston, Maine
Collection of Derelict Lobstering Gear in the Town of South Thomaston, Maine
Facilitate a central collection bin for obsolete and derelict lobstering gear in the Town of South Thomaston, Maine, home to approximately 3,000 lobster harvesters. Project will recycle 55 tons of lobstering gear, including line, buoys, bait bags and plastic-coated metal traps, as well as gear from ground fishing, scalloping and clamming.
$10,000

Wildlife Management Institute
Enhancing Forest Habitat for New England Cottontails, Golden-Winged Warbler and American Woodcock (multiple states)
Enhance participation in Farm Bill programs by supporting habitat biologists and outreach specialists to interface with private landowners to provide young forest habitat for more than 50 Species of Conservation Need in New England. Project will develop forest management plans that utilize existing Best Management Practices, develop healthy diverse forest age classes, and protect riparian habitat values, improving management on 200 acres.
$156,290