Groundfish Essential Fish Habitat EIS
In 2000 the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia remanded the
essential fish
habitat (EFH) FMP amendments to several fishery councils’ FMPs (based on
the findings in American Oceans Campaign v. Daley). This included parts of the Pacific Council’s Groundfish FMP Amendment 11 having to do with EFH. In response, NMFS Northwest Region staff have been preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) for Pacific Coast groundfish EFH off Washington, Oregon, and California. The action evaluated in the EIS is to amend the Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP, pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, to (1) describe and identify EFH for the groundfish fishery, (2) minimize to the extent practicable the adverse effects of fishing on EFH, and (3) identify other actions to encourage the conservation and enhancement of EFH.
The EIS development process has evolved in three stages, described below.
Scoping
Scoping was initiated on April 10, 2001, through publication of a Notice of
Intent (66 FR 18586) and several scoping meetings were held during that
year. Following scoping, on February 8, 2002 (67 FR 5962), NFMS announced that it would prepare two EISs. One would be specific to the designation of
EFH and associated management measures, including measures to reduce effects of
fishing on EFH. The other would be a broad analysis of the Federal management program. (The scope of this second EIS was subsequently narrowed to focus
on bycatch mitigation. The final
programmatic EIS for this action was published on September 17, 2004.) Additional background on the development of the EFH EIS is available from NMFS Northwest Region by
contacting Mr. Steve Copps (Steve.Copps@noaa.gov).
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Development of the Comprehensive Risk Assessment
In order to ensure that policy decisions presented in the EIS would be based
on a scientifically sound approach, NMFS developed a comprehensive risk
assessment, bringing together information on habitat and habitat impacts in a
computer-based geographic information system (GIS) model. To support development of the risk assessment, at NMFS’s request the Council established the Ad Hoc Groundfish Habitat Technical Review Committee, (or Habitat TRC), to review the methodology and data being used to assess groundfish EFH and advise NMFS staff and their contractors. Work began in earnest on the risk assessment
in early 2003, and by early 2004 elements of the model were ready for review by
the Council's Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC). At the April and June 2004 Council meetings the SSC advised the Council about using components of the risk assessment to develop and evaluate alternatives for the EIS. (View
the SSC’s final report. A report describing the risk assessment is also available.
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Development of the EFH EIS
The Council chose the range of alternatives for the EFH EIS at their November 2004 Council meeting. This included an alternative developed by the the plaintiffs in American Oceans Campaign v. Daley (now named Oceana) as specified in a revised settlement agreement. A draft EIS (DEIS) with these alternatives was published in February 2005. The Council identified their preferred alternative at their June 2005 meeting. NMFS released the final EIS (FEIS) on December 9, 2005.
According to the settlement agreement, a record of decision, describing how NMFS is implementing the preferred alternative in the FEIS, must be published by February 28, 2006. The FMP amendment and regulations needed to implement the action would have to be approved by May 6, 2006.
The Council approved an amendment to the groundfish FMP incorporating the elements of the preferred alternative into the plan. This amendment was submitted to NMFS for formal review and approval on November 23, 2005. NMFS partially approved the amendment and notified the Council of its decision on March 8, 2006. View/download Amendment 19, the EFH amendment as submitted to NMFS.
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PFMC
03/30/06
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