NOAA Fisheries releasing draft document on groundfish harvest

NOAA Fisheries has posted the Alaska Groundfish Harvest Specifications Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for comment. The document reveals projected environmental impacts of alternative harvest strategies for the groundfish fisheries of the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, including pollock, Pacific cod, rockfish and flatfish.

"The comment period ends on October 23, 2006," said Doug Mecum, Acting Administrator for the Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries. "We hope people will take time to study the document and give us their thoughts."

The DEIS provides decision-makers and the public with an evaluation of the environmental, social, and economic effects of alternative harvest strategies for the federally managed groundfish fisheries in Alaska. The DEIS examines alternative harvest strategies that comply with federal regulations, fishery management plans and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The harvest strategies use the best available scientific information to derive the harvest specifications for the groundfish fisheries.

Each year, the Secretary of Commerce approves the harvest specifications for the groundfish fisheries based on the recommendations of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. The harvest specifications provide for orderly and controlled commercial fishing for groundfish to promote sustainable incomes to the fishing, fish processing, and support industries; support sustainable fishing communities, and provide sustainable flows of fish products to consumers, while protecting the ecosystem.

The DEIS is posted at this website address: http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/analyses/specs/eis/default.htm. Hard copies of the DEIS may be ordered there also.

On the Web: NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov
NOAA Fisheries in Alaska: http://www.fakr.noaa.gov