SFERPM FY98 OVERVIEW

Under the RFP issued by SFERPM in FY97 most projects were awarded two-year contracts subject to the availability of FY98 funds. In FY98, SFERPM is essentially level funded. While COP is by far the major contributor, other NOAA line organizations as well as the National Park Service have made significant contributions. Two FY97 SFERPM projects were scheduled to be continued with NMFS funding in FY98 and are, therefore, no longer part of the FY98 SFERPM program. In addition, some SFERPM management funds were reprogrammed which permitted the initiation of one new project. As in FY97, research, monitoring, and modeling projects will be supported. In addition, Florida Sea Grant will receive funding for conducting an Outreach/Education program on behalf of the entire Interagency Florida Bay Science program. NOAA/OAR/AOML will continue to be responsible for program management, data administration, and small boat operations. Further, AOML has assumed the task of administering the Interagency Program web site. The complete list of SFERPM FY98 awards is given in the linked table. Within NOAA, three line organizations (OAR/AOML and OAR/ARL, NMFS/SEFSC and NOS] are major participants in the program, but the majority of SFERPM funding goes to university participants.

Our FY97 Funding Plan called for level funding in FY99 with some decreases thereafter. Our FY97 Implementation Plan called for Risk Assessment/Socioeconomic activities that we have yet to commence. Our potential involvement in the latter area depends upon the outcome of the Socioeconomic SubGroup Planning Workshops being convened under the auspices of the South Florida Ecosystem Task Force Working Group and the Governor's Commission. Even so, other agencies may be sufficiently addressing this area. Given these uncertainties we have not yet decided how best to proceed with an RFP process in FY98 and whether one or two-year awards are appropriate. Continuation of some project areas in FY2000 may also depend on an appropriate transition from a SFERPM research project to an operational NOAA line organization activity. A dialogue between SFERPM and both NOS and NMFS has already been initiated in this regard and these requirements have been included in their South Florida plans and budget requests.