15.678

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intends to award a single source cooperative agreement to Northern Arizona University (NAU) to implement a project entitled "Characterizing Gulf Sturgeon Spawning Habitat, Habitat Use, and Origins of Juvenile Sturgeon in the Pearl and Pascagoula River Systems." The project aims to develop open-source software tools to automate classification of substrate and morphologies, generate a sonar-based physical habitat map of the Pearl and Pascagoula Rivers, and identify potential spawning habitat for Gulf sturgeon. The project will be completed within 4 years, and the Service expects to make a single award of up to $250,000. • The project will focus on the Pearl and Pascagoula River Systems. • The project will develop open-source software tools for automated substrate classification. • The project will generate a sonar-based physical habitat map of the Pearl and Pascagoula Rivers. • The project will identify potential spawning habitat for Gulf sturgeon. • The project will be completed within 4 years. • The Service expects to make a single award of up to $250,000.