PC-21-02: Using Outcomes from Marine Protected Area Implementation to Infer Potential Socioeconomic Consequences of Offshore Energy Development to Commercial Fisheries | M21AS00478

Opportunity Information: Apply for M21AS00478

PC-21-02 is a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) discretionary funding opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number M21AS00478) set up as a cooperative agreement focused on understanding how offshore renewable energy development could affect commercial fisheries, especially when fishing access is restricted. The core problem BOEM is trying to address is that floating offshore wind and marine hydrokinetic energy projects on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) are likely to exclude most commercial fishing sectors from leased areas. Those exclusions can create economic and operational ripple effects for fishing businesses and communities, but predicting the real-world consequences is difficult because key fishing data are often confidential and because it is challenging to design a clean comparison (a credible "control" scenario) that isolates the effect of an area closure from other forces that also change fisheries outcomes over time, such as shifting ocean conditions, market changes, regulations, or stock dynamics.

Instead of trying to model offshore wind impacts from scratch, the project uses marine protected areas (MPAs) as a practical analog for studying closure-driven socioeconomic change. The objective is to describe the detectable socioeconomic consequences experienced by the commercial fishing industry after MPA implementation, and then use those lessons to improve BOEM's ability to anticipate and communicate potential impacts from future offshore energy development in the Pacific. In other words, the study treats MPAs, and other kinds of offshore access restrictions, as real-world "natural experiments" that can reveal how fishers respond when space is taken off the table, how costs and revenues shift, and what secondary effects show up in fishing behavior.

A major early task in the work is identifying which socioeconomic indicators are most useful and realistic for measuring potential effects of prospective offshore wind development. The opportunity statement emphasizes that this indicator set should not be limited to commercial fishing alone, but should also consider recreational and tribal sectors, reflecting the mix of ocean users that could experience space-use conflicts or indirect impacts. To select the indicators, researchers are expected to pull from existing literature, documented case studies of operating offshore wind facilities and their observed outcomes, and a range of analog closures that have created similar space constraints. The examples listed include military activities, MPAs themselves, offshore conventional energy development, offshore aquaculture, and other situations where ocean access or routing is constrained and different uses compete for the same areas.

Once the relevant indicators and metrics are identified, the project focuses on causal inference: separating the effects of MPA implementation from other drivers that could be influencing fisheries outcomes at the same time. The announcement points to specific kinds of metrics that are likely to be used, such as total landing revenues, catch per unit effort, number of trips, and distance traveled (for example, kilometers traveled). The idea is to build appropriate treatment and control datasets so that observed differences can be more confidently attributed to the closure itself rather than broader background trends. This treatment-control framing is highlighted as a central challenge because offshore and fishery systems are messy, and without careful comparison groups it is easy to over- or under-state impacts.

BOEM frames the practical value of the project in management terms. Improved predictive capacity would help BOEM evaluate potential lease areas, strengthen National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses, design mitigation measures that are better matched to likely effects, and communicate more clearly with stakeholders, including affected state governments and renewable energy task forces. In short, the work is intended to make the socioeconomic side of offshore energy planning more evidence-based, more transparent, and more defensible when decisions involve tradeoffs among ocean users.

Eligibility and solicitation status are unusually important details for this opportunity. Although the listing includes broad eligible applicant categories (state governments and public/state-controlled institutions of higher education), the announcement explicitly states it is not an open solicitation. It is a program announcement declaring BOEM's intent to undertake this specific project via a cooperative agreement that may be awarded to the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) under the California Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU), of which BOEM and UCSB are members. CESU projects are described as collaborative efforts between agency and partner scientists aligned with CESU mission needs, initiated when an agency or partner identifies a particular concern to be addressed. The award is contingent on BOEM receiving an acceptable proposal, but the structure makes clear the opportunity is effectively targeted rather than competitive.

Key administrative details included in the source information are that the agency is BOEM, the activity category is Environment, the CFDA number is 15.423, the original closing date was 2021-08-17, the award ceiling is $475,000, and the opportunity was created on 2021-07-14.

• The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "PC-21-02: Using Outcomes from Marine Protected Area Implementation to Infer Potential Socioeconomic Consequences of Offshore Energy Development to Commercial Fisheries" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.423.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-07-14.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-08-17. (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 $475,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education.

Apply for M21AS00478

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: