Regional Ocean Partnership Awards

For fiscal years 2023 and 2024, NOAA is announcing three recommended awards totaling $754,953 over two years to federally recognized Indian tribes to increase tribal participation with regional ocean partnerships. Funding is provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This is in addition to the $20.5 million in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 used to fund 13 awards under the regional ocean partnerships provision of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These awards are designed to address regional interstate and intertribal ocean and coastal management issues in several ways, including improved data sharing and integration. Award descriptions are below, and can be downloaded here (download fiscal years 2022 to 2023 projects here).

---

Makah Ocean Data and Management Capacity, Data Sovereignty, and Student Engagement

Recipient: Makah Indian Tribe
Start Date: April 1, 2024
Recommended Federal Funding*: $288,482
Congressional District(s): WA-6
Summary: The Makah Tribe began work related to this project in fiscal year 2023, with the overarching goal of enhancing the Makah Tribe’s ability to execute regional ocean planning initiatives by increasing their mapping capabilities. The goal now is to continue—and build upon—the work that the Makah Tribe’s ocean mapping specialist began during that initial award. This will allow the ocean mapping specialist to continue providing data and mapping support to tribal staff and leadership, and West Coast Ocean Alliance products, while also focusing on priority topics identified by the alliance, the West Coast Ocean Tribal Caucus, and the Makah Tribe. These include a focus on tribal data sovereignty, outreach to and education for the next generation of Makah resource managers, and a focus on ocean climate change and ocean energy data and research needs.

---

Supporting the Penobscot Nation's involvement in the Northeast Regional Ocean Council

Recipient: Penobscot Indian Nation’s Department of Natural Resources
Start Date: April 1, 2024
Recommended Federal Funding*: $199,998
Congressional District(s): ME-1 and ME-2
Summary: With the overall objective of cooperation and collaboration among the Penobscot Nation, the Northeast Regional Ocean Council, and other Indian tribes, this project has multiple goals. They include the following: continue to identify tribal priorities in both inshore and offshore ocean environments; increase tribal involvement in and support of ocean-related issues of climate change and energy projects; increase communications with other tribal governments, especially other Wabanaki Nations; identify potential research projects and surveys of submerged archaeological sites and historical uses; participate in regional ocean partnership meetings to assist in identifying aligned and collective priorities; comment and participate in offshore wind process development and associated Northeast Regional Ocean Council efforts; and create a draft tribal climate action plan.

---

Capacity Building for Chumash Tribal Engagement in the West Coast Ocean Alliance

Recipient: Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians
Start Date: April 1, 2024
Recommended Federal Funding*: $266,473
Congressional District(s): CA-19 and CA-24
Summary: The goal of this project is to strengthen the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians’ capacity and capability to cultivate a collaborative partnership with the West Coast Ocean Alliance. The funding will allow the Chumash tribe to hire a liaison to help establish a collaborative partnership with alliance leadership and staff, the West Coast Ocean Tribal Caucus, and federal and state members of the alliance. The results of this partnership will help advance the alliance’s five-year strategic plan goals, including focusing on offshore wind energy that recognizes the values of Indigenous rights, sustainable aquaculture, and state-tribal co-management of marine resources, and addressing the synergistic impacts of climate change on coastal and marine ecosystems and Indigenous cultural heritage.

---