PC-22-04: Tag you’re it! Habitat Use of Whales of the U.S. West Coast and Hawai'i | M22AS00289

Opportunity Information: Apply for M22AS00289

PC-22-04, "Tag you're it! Habitat Use of Whales of the U.S. West Coast and Hawai'i," is a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) funding opportunity focused on improving how the federal government understands where protected whale species spend time and how they move through key ocean areas. The underlying driver is the rapid rise in interest in offshore energy activities on the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf, especially floating offshore wind. BOEM notes that, following the 2005 Energy Policy Act, it has already received multiple unsolicited applications for floating wind turbine projects off Washington, Oregon, and both northern and central California. With new offshore industries expanding, the central environmental management problem is predicting and reducing unintended impacts on marine wildlife before large-scale construction and operations occur.

The project itself is designed to collate and analyze existing telemetry datasets collected from protected cetaceans along the U.S. West Coast and around Hawai'i. In practical terms, this means pulling together tag-derived tracking information that already exists (rather than launching a new, tag-deployment field campaign) and using it to characterize habitat use: where whales travel, where they concentrate, how they use different oceanographic regions, and how those patterns may shift across time and space. BOEM frames this as a foundational step for more accurate environmental assessments tied to offshore wind energy development and oil and gas decommissioning activities, since both can introduce noise, vessel traffic, seabed disturbance, and operational footprints that may overlap with sensitive species or high-use areas.

A major goal is decision support. By turning scattered telemetry records into coherent, analyzable products, the work is expected to help BOEM anticipate where development-related activities could pose higher risk and where mitigation might be most useful. That can translate into better siting decisions, better timing restrictions (for example, avoiding seasons when animals are most likely to be present), and stronger project conditions aimed at reducing exposure to disturbances. The emphasis on analysis of existing datasets also suggests an intent to produce results relatively quickly and cost-effectively, which matters when permitting and planning timelines are moving fast.

Administratively, this announcement is not a broad, open call for proposals. It is a program announcement describing a specific intended award and explicitly states that it is planned as a single-source Cooperative Agreement with Oregon State University. In other words, BOEM is signaling its intent to fund a particular implementing organization for this specific project, contingent on receiving an acceptable proposal. While it is single-source, the announcement still encourages cooperative research, meaning the lead applicant can form teams and issue subcontracts to other groups such as non-profit organizations, private universities, private companies, or public/state-controlled institutions of higher education. The structure requires that the applying organization provide the Principal Investigator from its own staff. Federal entities can participate as partners, but if they do, their tasks and budgets must be broken out separately; non-federal partners are incorporated through the lead applicant's proposal and budget.

Key opportunity details listed in the source information include: Funding Opportunity Number M22AS00289; funding instrument is a Cooperative Agreement; activity category is Environment; CFDA number 15.423; eligible applicant types include state governments, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, and other eligible entities as described in the announcement; the agency is BOEM; the posting was created July 7, 2022; and the original closing date was August 15, 2022. The award ceiling is $300,000, and the announcement indicates an expected single award consistent with the single-source intent described in the narrative.

• The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "PC-22-04: Tag you’re it! Habitat Use of Whales of the U.S. West Coast and Hawai'i" 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 2022-07-07.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-08-15. (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 $300,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Others.

Apply for M22AS00289

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