Panetta Announces NOAA Federal Grant for the University of California, Santa Cruz

SALINAS, CA – Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) announced that the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) will receive a federal grant totaling $566,827 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The funds will be used to develop the framework to identify climate-resilient management strategies and evaluate the impacts of climate change on marine species and fishing communities off of the West Coast of the United States. The University will use this capability to project the impacts of climate change on ocean conditions and distributions of marine species, and model the economic impacts of changing conditions on fisheries and fishing communities.

"Climate change will continue to have an impact on important marine life such as sardines, albacore tuna, and anchovies, species that the central coast of California's fisheries supply to the rest of the country," said Congressman Panetta. "NOAA's investment in UCSC will help our communities and businesses plan for and react to the changing environment."

"We will now be able to conduct a comprehensive, end-to-end evaluation of the impacts of climate variability and change on U.S. west coast fisheries, including everything from physical and biological changes to economic impacts and the outcomes of possible management strategies," said Michael Jacox, Physical & Biological Scientist in University of California, Santa Cruz's Institute of Marine Sciences.