Indigenous Fishery Monitoring Fund

On this page

• About the fund
• Who can apply
• How to apply
• Deadlines
• Review and approval process
• Preparing a contribution agreement
• The policy
• Contact information
• Related links

About the fund

The $5-million Indigenous Fishery Monitoring Fund will provide funds over five years through single and multi-year contribution agreements.^{Footnote 1} It is intended to:

• enable the participation of Indigenous groups and communities in implementing the Fishery Monitoring Policy for federally managed fish stocks
• support continued capacity building of Indigenous peoples, groups and communities to develop, lead and participate in fisheries monitoring and catch reporting activities for federally managed fish stocks

Who can apply

The Indigenous Fishery Monitoring Fund is open to:

• Indigenous communities, Bands, Chiefs' Councils, Tribal Councils, fishing authorities, boards, organizations, associations, commissions, corporations, cooperatives or aggregates responsible for managing fish harvesting and related monitoring activities, including:
• Food, social and ceremonial (FSC) or subsistence fisheries
• Indigenous owned and operated commercial or communal commercial fishing enterprises
• Other economic fishing opportunities
• Indigenous-led partnerships, joint ventures or other service providers mandated to work with or on behalf of Indigenous communities or organizations in fish harvesting and related monitoring, including:
• Partnerships between Indigenous communities or organizations
• Academic and/or research organizations hired by an Indigenous community or organization
• Technology and/or fishery monitoring related service provider hired by an Indigenous community or organization

How to apply

If you are an eligible Indigenous persons or group, you must submit a written proposal to DFO.NCRFRMIFMF-FSPAGRHRCN.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca that describes your proposed activity. This should include the following elements:

• Duration of the project (in months/years)
• Eligibility description (e.g., which category above reflects the applicant)
• Fish stock(s)/population(s)^{Footnote 2} on which the proposed activity will be focussed, if applicable
• Total funding request, along with a breakdown of how funds will be spent, and, if the total request is over $100,000/year a prioritization of activities (please consult the Fisheries Monitoring Policy for a description of typical fishery monitoring activities)
• Action(s) to be undertaken and how these actions:
  1. Achieve the objectives of the fund to:
     • enable Indigenous participation in the implementation of the policy, and/or
     • continue to build (and/or start to build) Indigenous capacity in fishery monitoring activities
  2. Contribute to the Fishery Monitoring Policy's objective to:
     • advance dependable, timely and accessible fishery information necessary for sustainable management
• Any products or processes that will be developed and/or acquired as a result of the project, including any information-sharing processes between you/your group and Fisheries and Oceans Canada
• Expected results or outcomes of the project (beyond contributing to the policy's objectives and achieving the objectives of the fund)

Deadlines

There is no deadline to apply for fiscal year 2024-2025. Applications will be evaluated as they are received until the annual total funding is distributed or by January 31, 2025, whichever comes first. During this initial phase, applicants are encouraged to focus on one-year projects.

Starting in fiscal year 2025-2026, a set deadline and evaluation period will be established. This web page will be updated early in 2025 with this information.

It is important to note that annual funding through this initiative is limited and may not be sufficient to support all of the proposals received. We will establish a waitlist to return to should additional funds become available.

Review and approval process

Proposals will initially be screened for completeness. It is the applicants' responsibility to ensure that they provide all required information. If information is missing or incomplete, we may provide applicants an opportunity to resubmit their proposal if time allows.

Proposals that are retained for further consideration will then be evaluated based on several criteria including, but not limited to:

1. Degree to which the project supports capacity building of Indigenous peoples, groups and communities in fishery monitoring
2. Degree to which the project enables the participation of Indigenous peoples, groups and communities in Fishery Monitoring Policy Implementation
3. Degree to which the project contributes to the implementation of the Fishery Monitoring Policy
4. Project feasibility
5. Quality of the budget and financial plan
6. Regional considerations
7. Whether the project involves one of the 23 priority fish stocks
8. Degree to which the project uses innovative tools, methods, or processes in fishery monitoring.
9. Extent to which the project enables information sharing between the applicant and DFO

We will notify applicants as soon as possible if their project has been approved. All applicants, successful or not, will be advised in writing of the decision. Review, approval and notification times may vary depending on the number and complexity of applications received.

Preparing a contribution agreement

Shortly after you receive notification of approval, a program representative will reach out to you to start developing a contribution agreement, drawing on the information provided in your application. To facilitate this process and avoids delays, please provide as much information as possible in your application, including details on planned work activities, deliverables and expenditures.

Further information on agreement drafting, administration and reporting will be shared at that time.

Where possible, the department will seek to use an existing contribution agreement to administer and flow this funding, to ease the administrative burden. This includes Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy (AFS) and Aboriginal Aquatic Resources and Oceans Management (AAROM) agreements, using their terms and conditions.

The policy

The Fishery Monitoring Policy sets the direction of how all federally managed wild capture fisheries and marine mammal harvests will be monitored in order to provide dependable, timely, and accessible information crucial to sustainable fisheries management.

The policy recognizes that Indigenous groups, harvesters, and other resource-related personnel already carry out fishery monitoring activities. The Indigenous Fishery Monitoring Fund will enable these and other Indigenous groups and experts to collaborate with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in sharing of best practices, fishery monitoring data and, as appropriate, Indigenous knowledge, to:

• inform better decision-making for sustainable fisheries
• demonstrate collaborative management of federally regulated fish stocks and populations across Canada

Tools and methods used to monitor fisheries

Fishery monitoring tools and methods include data collection at-sea and dockside that is undertaken by fish harvesters as well as fisher-independent persons and technology. For example, logbooks and creel surveys are completed by harvesters, while vessel monitoring systems, aerial gear counts, and port sampling are done by others.

Why fishery monitoring is important

Fishery monitoring informs sustainable fisheries management by providing accurate information on fishing activities, such as:

• how many fish are caught from each stock
• how many bycatch species are caught during a fishery

The policy consists of a six-step implementation process to establish or affirm the monitoring requirements of each fish stock and/or population. While the implementation process will eventually be applied to all federally regulated fish stocks, 23 were initially prioritized by DFO due to known data issues or ecological importance. These include:

• Arctic char in Cumberland Sound (Iqalugaarjuit Fiord and Irvine Inlet)
• Atlantic cod in NAFO 2J3KL, 3Pn4RS and 4TVn
• Atlantic herring in NAFO 4T (spring and fall spawners)
• Atlantic mackerel
• Capelin in NAFO 2J3KL
• Lobster in LFA 23, 24, 25, 26A and B (southern Gulf) and inshore in LFA 27, 29 and 30
• Northern shrimp in SFA 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12
• Queen/snow crab in assessment divisions 2HJ, 3K, 3LNO, 3Ps and 4R3Pn
• Quillback rockfish (inside and outside)
• Yelloweye rockfish (inside and outside)

Contact information

DFO.NCRFRMIFMF-FSPAGRHRCN.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Related links

• Fishery Monitoring Policy
• Introduction to the procedural steps for implementing the Fishery Monitoring Policy

Technical research papers:

• Review of catch monitoring tools used in Canadian fisheries
• Assessment of the dependability of fishery catch monitoring