NOAA Fisheries requests comments on Essential Fish Habitat proposed rule

NOAA Fisheries has published a proposed rule that would close large areas of the Alaskan sea floor to bottom-contact fishing gear to protect sensitive habitats. The proposed rule would implement a February 2005 recommendation from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

The proposed rule, published today in the Federal Register, would establish a network of fishing closures in the Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska. The habitat areas to be protected include cold water corals and other sensitive features that are slow to recover once disturbed by fishing gear or other activities. Protecting these relatively undisturbed habitats will help support sustainable fisheries into the future.

“These regulations are the final step in getting the Council’s plan out onto the water,” said Doug Mecum, Acting Regional Administrator for NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Region. “It’s a step forward in protecting habitat that underpins Alaska’s fisheries. The Council’s decision was widely praised as a good compromise between environmental groups and the fishing industry to protect essential fish habitat” added Mecum.

The proposed rule would close most of the Aleutian Islands fishery management area to bottom trawling. Fishing areas that have been trawled repeatedly in the past would remain open. A zone on Bowers Ridge north of Adak would be closed to mobile bottom-contact gear such as trawls, but fixed gear including crab pots would still be allowed. Six small areas that include especially sensitive “coral gardens” would be closed to all bottom-contact fishing gear, including trawls, pots, and dredges. These vulnerable coral gardens were discovered by NOAA Fisheries scientists in 2002 and have been observed nowhere else.

The Aleutian Islands Habitat Conservation Area included in the proposed rule would be the largest marine protected area in the United States: 279,114 square nautical miles, or about the same size as the entire states of Texas and Colorado combined.

In the Gulf of Alaska, ten areas along the continental slope would be closed to bottom trawling to protect hard bottom that may be important to rockfish. Five small areas in southeast Alaska, in the Fairweather Grounds and off Cape Ommaney, would be closed to all bottom-contact fishing to protect dense thickets of red tree corals. Another fifteen areas offshore would be closed to all bottom fishing to protect seamounts.

In total, the proposed regulations would affect nearly 300,000 square nautical miles off Alaska. NOAA Fisheries analysis predicts only small economic effects on the fishing industry with implementation of the proposed rule because fishermen do not rely heavily on the areas that would be closed.

The state Board of Fisheries will consider adopting counterpart regulations for state fisheries at its October meeting.

NOAA Fisheries is also reviewing proposed Fishery Management Plan amendments that would refine the identification of Essential Fish Habitat, adopt a process for identifying Habitat Areas of Particular Concern, and authorize the fishery closures. The comment period on the management plan amendments closes April 7, 2006.

Maps of the new management areas and copies of the Environmental Impact Statement for Essential Fish Habitat and the analysis for Habitat Areas of Particular Concern may be obtained from the Alaska Region NOAA Fisheries website at www.fakr.noaa.gov. The website also includes instructions for commenting on the proposed regulations. Comments on the proposed rule must be received by May 8, 2006. NOAA Fisheries expects to complete the final rule by August.

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation’s living marine resources through scientific research, management, enforcement, and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected marine species and their habitat. To learn more about NOAA Fisheries in Alaska, please visit our website at www.fakr.noaa.gov and www.afsc.noaa.gov