Grants to USA, Canada, and International nonprofit and for-profit organizations and researchers affiliated with universities for initiatives to improve the condition of fisheries worldwide. Applicants are required to submit an initial proposal prior to a full grant application. Funding is intended for easily-implemented and sustainable solutions. Areas of interest include data collection, fishing gear modification, and improvement of tools.

The massive scope of the work needed to improve the state of the world’s fisheries suggests that numerous new ideas and companies will need to develop and expand in the coming years. Schmidt Marine funds groups at a variety of stages, but prioritizes support to projects in the earliest stages of development, when funding is most difficult to obtain. Schmidt Marine traditionally commits to fund a project for several years until it has reached financial stability through traditional investment or contracts and sales.

While the initiative does not have a specific regional focus, Schmidt Marine is seeking technologies that have the potential to enable improvements in multiple regions, especially areas where management and monitoring resources are most limited. Selected projects will reflect a strong understanding of the political structures of target deployment regions. They should be well grounded in both the realities of fishing and fisheries science and management, and in the case of new gear or gear improvements, should offer benefits to fishermen that make adoption feasible. The initiative also encourages applications from individuals and groups who do not typically work on ocean issues, such as companies with technologies for other applications that offer potential in fisheries.

Though other ideas will be considered, the primary focus will be on:

• New or improved methods and tools for fisheries data collection, especially those enabling fisheries stock assessments. Of particular interest are technologies that offer the potential for low-cost, reliable, and efficient deployment even in remote areas.
• Creative methods and new collaborations to substantially expand capabilities for analyzing fisheries data sets to increase the sustainability of fisheries through reduction of overfishing, prevention of illegal fishing, or creation of premium sustainable markets.
• Fishing gear or gear modifications that reduce bycatch, derelict gear, and/or habitat destruction, or that increase fishermen safety or the survival rates of discarded catch. Such technologies should offer benefits to fishermen or other characteristics that open plausible paths for adoption.
• Tools that enable improved fishing ground and protected area monitoring to prevent situations where good players are penalized and illegal players profit.