Project objectives: this project supports essential staffing needs to maintain and expand the stranding response program in delaware, and includes the critical role of the stranding coordinator's…

This $248,980 project grant from the Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under the Marine Mammal Data Program (CFDA 11.439), supports staffing and operations for the Marine Education Research & Rehabilitation Institute Inc.'s stranding response program in Delaware. The funding maintains positions for a Stranding Coordinator and new Stranding Technician to respond to seal strandings along the Delaware coast, where seal pupping is emerging. It also covers surveillance of the developing seal colony to document species, pupping, and health data. The grant funds a 24-hour reporting hotline and cell phone coverage for stranding events and operations. Finally, it supports education and outreach on messaging regarding seals in the region.

Project objectives: this project supports essential staffing needs to maintain and expand the stranding response program in delaware, and includes the critical role of the stranding coordinator's position and a new position for a stranding technician, which will enable US to maximize our current stranding response capabilities, and will help US to meet the growing demands of seal response, including those demands associated with the emerging trend of seal pupping along the delaware coast, and the subsequent care and short term holding required for dependent and weanling pups. Surveillance monitoring of the emerging seal colony off of delaware will help to document activity pertaining to species, pupping, and health data. This project will also support the cost of the 24 hour reporting hotline and cell phone coverage, which will facilitate communication during stranding events and general operations. Education and outreach efforts will promote messaging regarding sea