Save crucial funding for marine mammals

The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program provides critical funding for marine mammal rescue and research. Unfortunately, this work has been slated to be eliminated in the Federal Budget for Fiscal Year 2013 currently put forth by President Obama for Congressional approval.

Please urge your Senator and Representative to save the Prescott Grant so that this vital rescue work can continue.

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We have prepared the email below for you. Please feel free to personalize this copy with your own polite message.

The John H Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program has been cut from the Administration’s proposed 2013 budget. The loss of this program will be deeply felt; these funds are vital to continue rescuing dolphins and other marine mammals, as the recent mass standing events in Cape Cod demonstrate. The organizations that rely on the Prescott Grant Program help NOAA fulfill its legal mandate to respond to strandings under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Since NOAA does not have the internal capacity to respond to strandings across the U.S., stranding networks - using Prescott grants - take on the work that NOAA cannot do by itself.

The national marine mammal stranding network is made up mainly of non-profit organizations that have very few staff and many dedicated volunteers, like the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The Prescott funds help IFAW and the other stranding response organizations respond to strandings effectively and efficiently. It is worth noting that the Prescott Grant Program is the only federal funding program dedicated to stranding response: without this program, these organizations receive no federal assistance for their work achieving NOAA’s legal obligation and gains that have been made in stranding response in the past may be lost.

The Prescott Grant Program also serves as a way to generate additional public funding. All grant recipients must provide matching funds totaling one third of the federal funds requested. Therefore, over the life of the grant program, $36M in federal funding has in turn leveraged over $12M in public support for this important, federally mandated work. 
The Prescott Grant is not a significant burden or drain on the federal government, but it is critical to the organizations who respond to marine mammal strandings; these organizations cannot continue to fulfill an ever growing request for data from NOAA without continued federal support.

Please fully fund the Prescott Grant Program in 2013.

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Bears	Primates
Big Cats	Raptors
Cats & Dogs	Rhinos
Dolphins	Seals
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Foxes	Turtles
Penguins	Whales
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