PolArctic LLC Awarded $1,000,000 from National Science Foundation to Forecast Climate Change Impacts on Fishery Stocks

Press release from PolArctic

Washington, DC- The National Science Foundation has awarded $1,000,000 to PolArctic LLC through a non-dilutive Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award. PolArctic LLC will develop a revolutionary digital twin—a virtual ocean—of the North Pacific Ocean to understand the detailed impacts of climate change on fishery stocks across Alaska.

With the recent snow crab population crash, salmon disasters on the Yukon and Kuskokwim and documented habitat change due to the regional loss of sea ice and warming oceans, this important work is extremely timely for Alaska’s communities and seafood industry.

PolArctic’s digital twin product will weave together multiscale information such as traditional indigenous knowledge, scientific measurements, and satellite data to create a holistic picture of ongoing climate variability and change. With advanced AI and agent-based modeling, PolArctic intends to account for the dynamism and complexity of marine fisheries by modeling ocean entities as individual agents, replete with their own characteristics and behaviors in various
environments.

This approach will enable PolArctic to simulate various interactions within the
environment, to include emergent phenomena such as acidification, temperature changes, and predator and prey interactions.

“With the ability to optimize the parameters for all use cases from subsistence activities to commercial fisheries, this project will advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare of Alaska and Arctic communities by providing tailored information to establish local and sustainable fisheries,” said Leslie Canavera, CEO and co-founder of PolArctic LLC

The most significant and powerful capability is to address “What if?” scenarios, enabling users to interact with data and information tailored to their subsistence, commercial, and management needs.

For Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management (EBFM) this will provide a new
understanding for forecasting future scenarios, including how quota can be adjusted
dynamically to maintain sustainable populations and biomass for future generations.
Subsistence and commercial fishermen will also be able to plan seasonal to daily activities to optimize their time at sea.

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About PolArctic
PolArctic is a Yup’ik, woman, and disabled veteran-owned small business working to solve critical environmental challenges impacting the Arctic community. PolArctic is an oceanographic and data science company with an interest in supporting scientific research, planning, and sustainable development in the Arctic. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques PolArctic creates a range of data-driven products tailored to meet the needs of environmental science, arctic policy, and resource development initiatives within the Arctic.

Contact
Leslie Canavera
CEO, PolArctic LLC
E: [email protected]
T: (571) 494-1992

About the NSF’s Small Business Programs
America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Startups working across almost all areas of science and technology can receive up to $2 million to support research and development (R&D), helping de-risk technology for commercial success. America’s Seed Fund is congressionally mandated through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. The NSF is an independent federal agency with a budget of about $8.8 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. For more information, visit seedfund.nsf.gov.