NOAA Fisheries announces the release of a draft environmental impact statement (EIS), in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, which includes an analysis of the potential short- and long-term impacts of the proposed action to authorize fishing with deep-set buoy gear (DSBG) in federal waters off the U.S. West Coast, on the human (biological, physical, social, and economic) environment. In 2019, the Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended that NMFS authorize DSBG to fish in federal waters south of the Oregon-Washington border based on data from DSBG trials under exempted fishing permits (EFPs) from 2015 through 2018. In its Draft EIS, NMFS also includes data from DSBG EFP trials conducted in 2019 and 2020 to project potential impacts of the proposed action.
NMFS bulletin page (additional background information on the action)