The National Park Service awarded a $149,927 grant in 2016 to a group studying Bigfoot, sea monsters, wild babies and other "supernatural" creatures, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

Nonprofit group Kawerak Inc., which serves people of Eskimo, Aleut, or American Indian descent in the Bering Strait region between Alaska and Russia, is researching the "supernatural environment," according to its website.

"Phenomena that can be described as 'supernatural' include, among others, things such as sea monsters, little people, wild babies, unexplained lights, animals that can change into other things and invisible sea birds," their site said.

"The objective of the project is to document, in a serious and meaningful way, Bering Strait residents' knowledge about, experiences with, and beliefs about supernatural phenomena."

The project is part of the Shared Beringian Heritage Program, which began during George H.W. Bush's presidency and gets $650,000 a year, National Park Service spokesman John Quigley told The Free Beacon.

The Kawerak group got $50,000 for the project in June 2016, and will have gotten a total of $149,927 by the end of the project in April 2019, The Free Beacon reported.

"The grant serves the program's broader goals of fostering a climate of mutual understanding as well as natural resource and cultural connections between indigenous people of northwest Alaska and northeast Russia," Quigley said.

The head researcher for the project, Julie Raymond-Yakoubian, told The Free Beacon the project is "proceeding well and is still ongoing."

The mystery of the wilderness creature Bigfoot remains popular in TV series such as "Finding Bigfoot" and groups who search for signs of the creature, including the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

The TV series "Alaska Monsters" has featured footage of Bigfoot, including an episode in which a cast member detailed an encounter with one.