John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant

The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant, solicitation number NOAA-NMFS-PRPO-2026-31863, is administered by the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. This program provides federal funding to eligible members of the U.S. National Marine Mammal Stranding Network, the U.S. National Entanglement Response Network, and their collaborators. The grant supports the recovery, care, and treatment of sick, injured, or entangled marine mammals, emergency stranding responses, the collection of scientific data for health assessments, and related facility operating costs and network capacity development. Funding is available for single organization proposals up to 125,000 dollars and multi-organizational proposals up to 150,000 dollars, with a strict cap of 150,000 dollars per award in any 12-month period. Applications must be submitted via Grants.gov by December 1, 2026, and require a Prescott Letter of Eligibility, a ten-page proposal narrative, and various federal forms including SF-424 and CD-511. Proposals are evaluated on a 100-point scale, focusing on project costs and outreach effectiveness, with a minimum score of 60 required to proceed to the program review panel. Awardees are expected to store health data in the Marine Mammal Health Monitoring and Analysis Platform and submit semi-annual financial and technical reports through eRA. Projects are anticipated to begin around September 1, 2027. Compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and Build American, Buy American Act requirements is mandatory for all funded activities.