Shaheen and Hassan Announce $6.4 Million Grant Awarded to UNH Joint Hydrographic Center

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the lead Democrat on the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees the annual budget for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) announced that NOAA has awarded the University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM/JHC) a $6,475,000 grant to continue the Center's work.

"The University of New Hampshire is a world leader in ocean-mapping and hydrography," said Senator Shaheen. "With rising sea levels threatening coastal New Hampshire businesses and homes, the work of the Coastal and Ocean Mapping Joint Hydrographic Center is more important than ever. I congratulate the faculty, staff and students, whose research and work is vital to the preservation and protection of our Seacoast."

“Our coastal communities are critical to our environment, our economy, and our way of life in the Granite State, and we must do everything in our power to maintain them,” Senator Hassan said. “This important grant to support NOAA’s Joint Hydrographic Center at UNH is critical to those efforts, supporting research and development that will lead to stronger, more resilient coastal communities.”

The Center serves as a national center of hydrographic, ocean, and coastal mapping sciences, conducting research, training and developing state-of-the-art ocean mapping tools and technologies. The Center’s primary research and development goals are directed towards hydrography and hydrographic services for nautical charting, in support of NOAA's mission goal of resilient coastal communities and economies. Research will also address integrated ocean and mapping technologies for use in sound fisheries management, national security and sovereignty, environmental and habitat studies and continental shelf mapping.