NOAA NEPA Document Database

Amendment 21 would consider measures related to the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area, Limited Access General Category individual fishing quota possession limits, and the ability of Limited Access vessels with Limited Access General Category individual fishing quota permits to transfer quota to Limited Access General Category individual fishing quota-only vessels.

Framework Adjustment 61 sets catch limits for about half of the groundfish stocks, and makes other minor changes to groundfish management measures.

Framework Adjustment 59 sets catch limits for 15 groundfish stocks, and makes other minor changes to groundfish management measures.

Updated: This EA evaluates the potential effects of NMFS’ proposed action and alternatives for consideration of whether to issue a permit to Mystic Aquarium to import five captive born beluga whales from Marineland of Canada Inc., to Mystic Aquarium for conducting scientific research.
Previous: This EA evaluates impacts of three Action alternatives on the human environment including the No Action alternative (Alternative 1, permit denial), permit issuance with prohibited breeding and special conditions (Alternative 2, preferred), and permit issuance as requested (Alternative 3). The EA also considers whether permit issuance would comply with applicable laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and NMFS’ implementing regulations at 50 CFR Part 216. NMFS’ preferred alternative is Alternative 2, which is not likely to result in significant impacts on the human environment.

This Final Environmental Assessment analyzes the potential environmental impacts of several alternatives that could increase the flexibility of and provide consistency between the swordfish retention limits for commercial swordfish fishermen fishing with similar gears within U.S. Atlantic and Caribbean waters; adjust shark retention limits and change regulatory procedures for commercial shark fishermen in the U.S. Caribbean; and increase administrative efficiencies by managing the swordfish fishery in two regions with one action as needed (i.e., inseason adjustment).The goal is to improve efficiency of management while also avoiding overharvests in these fisheries. Specifically, this action considers modifying the swordfish and shark retention limits and adding regulatory criteria for inseason adjustment of those swordfish and shark retention limits for certain permit holders. This final action would also streamline Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) regulations to align swordfish retention limits for commercial swordfish permits established for HMS Commercial Caribbean Small Boat permit holders under Amendment 4 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic HMS Fishery Management Plan with those established in Amendment 8 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic HMS Fishery Management Plan for Swordfish General Commercial permit holders and HMS Charter/Headboat permit holders.

Abstract: This Regulatory Impact Review/ Environmental Assessment analyzes a proposed Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) trawl Pacific cod catch share program that would assign BSAI trawl catcher vessel (CV) Pacific cod harvest shares based on legal landings of targeted BSAI Pacific cod authorized by a valid License Limitation Program (LLP) license. The proposed program considers allocations of quota shares (QS) to groundfish LLP licenses based on the harvest of targeted BSAI Pacific cod during the qualifying years. The action also considers allocating harvest shares to a processor permit based on processing history of BSAI Pacific during the qualifying years. This would yield an exclusive harvest privilege allocation for use in a BSAI trawl CV Pacific cod catch share program cooperatives. The purpose of this action is to improve the prosecution of the fishery with the intent of promoting safety and stability in the harvesting and processing sectors, increasing the value of the fishery, providing for the sustained participation of fishery dependent communities, and insuring the sustainability and viability of the resource.

This is a cooperative agreement with Maine DMR, for work related to Atlantic salmon research and recovery. The action will primarily fund recovery actions for atlantic salmon, and evaluation and monitoring of salmon ecosystems in Maine. The document will be an update from a previous EA, last done around 2011.

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) propose to provide a four year exemption for longline vessels 50 ft and longer holding an American Samoa longline limited entry permit to fish within certain portions of the large vessel prohibited area (LVPA). The LVPA currently prohibits vessels over 50 ft from operating approximately 3-50 nautical miles (nm) around the Swains, Tutuila, and Manua Islands of American Samoa. The proposed action would generally reduce the prohibition from 50 nm to 12 nm for eligible vessels around Swains, Tutuila, and Manua Islands, with the exception of maintaining a 2 nm prohibition to longline vessels around designated offshore banks. The proposed action is needed to promote greater operational efficiency in the American Samoa longline fishery by improving fishing yields and reducing operating costs, and will protect and preserve the continuation of fishing practices that are an important facet of American Samoan culture and the local economy.

The proposed action will implement exemplar restoration projects, including recreational use restoration, to compensate the public for injuries to natural resources and services resulting from the 2018 oil leak from the Pac Anteres, which struck a wharf on the Mississippi River near downtown New Orleans.

This action would establish caps on the amount of quota share or annual allocation that an entity could hold in the surfclam and ocean quahog individual transferable quota (ITQ) fisheries. It would also adjust the frequency of multi-year specifications actions to better align with the stock assessment schedule. This action is administrative with minimal impacts.

This action maintains status quo harvest quotas for 2021 through 2026.

The Fishery Management Plan for the Salmon Fisheries in the EEZ off Alaska (FMP) manages the salmon fisheries in the United States Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ; 3 nautical miles to 200 nautical miles offshore) off Alaska. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council developed this FMP under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). In 2012, the Council comprehensively revised the FMP to comply with the recent Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements, such as annual catch limits and accountability measures, and to more clearly reflect the Council’s policy with regard to State of Alaska management authority for commercial and sport salmon fisheries in the EEZ. Now, in response to a United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit ruling, the Council is considering how to revise the FMP to manage the commercial salmon fishery that occurs in the EEZ waters of Cook Inlet that had been removed from Federal management with the 2012 revisions to the FMP. The Council is considering new management measures that comply with Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements for the Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishery in the EEZ, such as status determination criteria, annual catch limits, and accountability measures. Two action alternatives, in addition to a no action alternative, are under consideration. The first would assume Federal management of the Cook Inlet EEZ salmon drift gillnet fishery with certain management measures delegated to the State of Alaska. The second would assume Federal management of the fishery without any delegation of management of authority to the State of Alaska.

The proposed action will implement a suite of inshore and nearshore restoration projects to compensate the public for natural resource injuries in the Gulf of Mexico resulting from crude oil spill discharged from a Shell Offshore, Inc. well-head flow line in the Green Canyon Block 248 subsea oil production system. Projects will restore habitats for the fish, birds, and marine mammals impacted by the spill.

Draft PEIS which would provide management alternatives for a potential aquaculture management program in the PIR. Currently no such management program exists.

Large year classes of sablefish result in significant catches of small sablefish in the IFQ fixed gear fisheries. Small sablefish have low commercial value and current regulations require IFQ holders to retain all sablefish. Available data suggest that survival rates for carefully released sablefish are high. Operational flexibility to carefully release sablefish may increase the value of the commercial harvest and allow small fish to contribute to the overall biomass.

The National Marine Fisheries Service proposes to issue an Incidental Take Permit through ESA Section 10 B - Habitat Conservation Planning, to the Stockton East Water District and the Calaveras County Water District for their continuing water storage and delivery operations in the Calaveras River watershed. Central Valley steelhead reside in the lower Calaveras River and are affected by the Districts\' operations. The lower Calaveras River is also designated as Critical Habitat for Central Valley steelhead and Essential Fish Habitat for Central Valley fall/late-fall run Chinook salmon.

Vessels fishing for groundfish in the Bering Sea (BS) and Aleutian Islands (AI) fishery management plan (FMP) areas are required to have a License Limitation Program (LLP) license that is endorsed for fishing in that area. Vessels fishing for Pacific cod with fixed gear (hook-and-line or pot gear) must have additional Pacific cod endorsement for specific areas, gear-types, and operational-types (operational-type includes catcher/processors (CP) that process catch at sea and catch vessels that deliver to inshore facilities). This action considers alternatives that would eliminate the LLP license endorsement for CP vessels to fish for Pacific cod with pot gear in the BS and AI FMP subareas if the license was not credited with a minimum amount of directed Pacific cod landings during a specified period. The purpose of this action is to increase stability for pot CPs that are dependent upon Pacific cod while maintaining low rates of halibut and crab bycatch and ensuring that condensed fishing seasons do not result in safety-at-sea concerns. NMFS Alaska Region Office has made the preliminary determination that the proposed action would be a change to regulations that does not result in substantial modification of fishing location, timing, effort, authorized gear types, or harvest levels relative to the status quo and relative to what has been analyzed in previous approved actions. If the Council recommendation on the scope of this action remains the same, this action would qualify for a Categorical Exclusion from further review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). However, if the scope is expanded, an EA would be prepared.

The proposed action is an annual catch limit and accountability measures for stipped marlin and administrative changes to the Fisheries Ecosystem Plan for Pelagic Species of the Western Pacific Region.

This EA analyses the potential environmental impacts of allowing the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) to recommend multi-year catch and U.S. territorial allocation limits for big eye tuna. Currently, the Council can only set annual catch and allocation limits, and must first establish a catch limit for U.S. territories before specifying an allocation limit. The proposed action would allow the Council to set multi-year catch and U.S. territorial allocation limits instead of annual catch and allocation limits. The action would also allow the Council to modify the territorial catch and allocation limit measure to set allocation limits without recommending a total catch or effort limit. The proposed action is needed to provide flexibility to the Council for managing big eye tuna catch limits while continuing to ensure harvests are sustainable.

Pursuant to the CRCA, the CRCP Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) evaluated the continued implementation of the CRCP’s activities in order “to preserve, sustain, and restore the condition of coral reef ecosystems; to promote the wise management and sustainable use of coral reef ecosystems to benefit local communities and the Nation; . . . and to develop sound scientific information
on the condition of coral reef ecosystems and the threats to these ecosystems”