Status of Cisco in Western Lake Superior | F17AS00255

Opportunity Information: Apply for F17AS00255

The grant opportunity titled "Status of Cisco in Western Lake Superior" is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Department of the Interior) cooperative agreement focused on improving how managers measure and understand the spawning biomass and overall status of cisco in the western part of Lake Superior. Cisco are a key native species in this ecosystem because they help move energy and nutrients across different parts of the lake, both vertically through the water column and horizontally across habitats. They also play a major role as prey for top predators and are important to large-scale commercial fisheries. The underlying management concern driving this work is that cisco recruitment has been inconsistent in recent years, with lake-wide bottom trawl surveys showing only occasional strong year-classes, which raises questions about population stability and future fishery potential.

A central purpose of the project is to address a known limitation in current monitoring tools. Traditional down-looking hydroacoustic surveys have been used to estimate cisco spawning biomass, but they struggle to sample the near-surface zone effectively. This is a serious gap because trawls fished just below the surface have captured high numbers of cisco, suggesting that a meaningful portion of the population can occupy surface waters that are undercounted or missed by down-looking approaches. To fix this problem, the project will implement newer up-looking hydroacoustic methods, using them to quantify how much standard down-looking surveys may be underestimating spawning biomass. In practical terms, the work aims to produce a more accurate picture of how many spawning cisco are present by better covering the full water column, including the surface layer.

Beyond the technology comparison, the project is also positioned as part of a broader, multi-agency effort to assess cisco status in the western end of Lake Superior. That means the results are intended to feed into a larger coordinated monitoring and assessment framework, helping agencies align their understanding of population condition, trends, and potential management responses. The expected outcome is improved scientific confidence in abundance estimates and, by extension, stronger decision-making around conservation and fishery management.

Administratively, this announcement is a notice of intent to make a single-source award rather than a competitive grant. The funding opportunity number is F17AS00255, created June 13, 2017, with an original closing date of June 20, 2017, and it explicitly states there is no application process because the recipient is pre-identified. The planned award is one cooperative agreement with an award ceiling of $95,000 and an expected number of awards of 1. The eligibility field notes "Others" with additional eligibility details referenced in the full notice, but in practice the single-source justification names the University of Minnesota - Duluth as the intended recipient under justification 505DM 2.14.B. The rationale given is that competition is not practical because the University of Minnesota - Duluth has specialized expertise, including an expert professor with experience in hydroacoustic data collection, population modeling, and Lake Superior fisheries, making the institution uniquely qualified to lead and supervise the work.

Because the instrument is a cooperative agreement, the Fish and Wildlife Service will have substantial involvement rather than simply providing funds at arm's length. Specifically, the Service (through the Ashland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office) will participate in shaping and refining research objectives, provide technical help with field data collection and statistical analyses, assist with editing manuscripts, and ensure that key findings are communicated to the scientific community and other interested audiences through presentations and written products. Service staff will also participate directly in mentoring and oversight by serving as an active member of a University of Minnesota - Duluth graduate student advisory committee, reinforcing that this is a collaborative research-and-management effort rather than a standalone academic study.

In short, the opportunity supports targeted research to correct a known monitoring bias in cisco acoustic surveys by adding up-looking hydroacoustics to better sample surface waters, with the broader goal of improving cisco status assessments in western Lake Superior. The work is structured as a close agency-university collaboration, funded at up to $95,000, and awarded non-competitively to the University of Minnesota - Duluth due to specialized expertise and the practical need for continuity and technical leadership in this niche field.

• The Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service in the environment, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Status of Cisco in Western Lake Superior" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.662.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 13, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 20, 2017 There is not an application process for this funding opportunity. This is a notice of intent to award a single source cooperative agreement to the University of Minnesota - Duluth under justification 505DM 2.14.B.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $95,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for F17AS00255

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