Commission outlines FY2025 grants to improve stock assessments

D. (Dee) Allen, the Commission's scientific program officer, opened the grants session with the statutory basis for the Commission's grantmaking under Title II of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and noted the FY2025 program funded projects aimed at improving stock assessments. The FY2025 awards were grouped into three themes: new methods for stock assessment, unmanned aerial systems for demographic and injury assessment, and satellite detection methods for remote monitoring.

Allen explained the review process and invited grantees to address how their work could support federal‑non‑agency partnerships and improve the completeness and accuracy of stock assessments. "The commission typically holds an annual competitive funding opportunity and awards grants to high‑quality projects," he said. Presentations that followed included approaches—from spatial mark‑recapture and close‑kin mark‑recapture to UAS photogrammetry and satellite experiments—designed to reduce uncertainty in abundance and serious‑injury estimates and to better integrate opportunistic and structured datasets.