NOAA NEPA Document Database

The National Marine Fisheries Service, in cooperation with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, has prepared a draft environmental impact statement that analyzes the impacts of establishing 22 new habitat areas of particular concern (HAPC) in the Gulf of Mexico, modifying the fishing regulations within the boundaries of the existing Pulley Ridge HAPC, and excluding dredge fishing in HAPCs that are managed with fishing regulations.

The Amendment 8 DEIS provides a range of alternatives to address the following issues:
-Establishing a long-term acceptable biological catch control rule that may explicitly account for herring’s role in the ecosystem and address the biological and ecological requirements of the stock; and
-Addressing localized depletion and user group conflict occurring when effort in the herring fishery overlaps, spatially and temporally, with effort in fisheries targeting predators of herring (e.g., tuna, groundfish) or ecotourism industries.

The DEIS analyzes the impacts of a reasonable range of alternatives intended to provide limited authority to Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, to manage recreational fishing of red snapper. These actions would allow those states the flexibility to manage recreational fishing of red snapper in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico adjacent to their state waters. Actions include allowing states to request closure of federal waters, set minimum and maximum size limits, set bag limits, determine the season length and structure.

We are preparing a draft environmental impact statement, analyzing measures approved by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Jonah Crab and its addenda, as well as other reasonable alternatives. The goal of the Jonah Crab Plan is “to promote conservation, reduce the possibility of recruitment failure, and allow the full utilization of the resource by the industry.” This document analyzes management measures that are common industry practice and have already been implemented by states.

NMFS is proposing to adopt regulations to reduce the threat of take to Hawaiian spinner dolphins, including harassment and disturbance caused by dolphin-directed activities that are concentrated in coastal waters (within 2 nautical miles (nm) (3.7 kilometers (km) of shore) and in designated waters bounded by Lāna‘i, Maui, and Kahoʻolawe), and to reduce the impact of viewing and interaction on resident stocks.

The Vigor Shipyards Habitat Projects are expected to restore, replace or acquire the equivalent of natural resources injured and services lost due to releases of hazardous substances and discharges of oil from Vigor’s Harbor Island facility in the LDR. Exxon Mobil Corporation (“Exxon”) will also satisfy its natural resource damages liability for its historic activities at the Vigor facility on Harbor Island with ecological benefits created by the Shipyards Projects. The restoration analyzed by the Trustees in the Final RP/EA has been proposed by Vigor and Exxon to resolve their liability in a consent decree filed with the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. The proposed restoration will not result in significant impacts, and is expected to provide mainly beneficial impacts to natural resources and services that were injured.

NMFS notified the Pacific Fishery Management Council that it declared the northern subpopulation of Pacific sardine overfished in July 2019. The proposed action is to implement a rebuilding plan for the northern subpopulation of Pacific sardine by July 2021 in accordance with Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requirements. The associated Environmental Analysis for this action will analyze the effects of three management alternatives to achieve rebuilding targets: 1) "status quo" management, where the existing harvest control rule for Pacific sardine would be used to set annual catch limits until the stock is rebuilt, 2) "zero harvest," which would set an annual catch limit of zero until the stock is rebuilt, and 3) "5 percent of acceptable biological catch", where the annual catch limit would not exceed 5 percent of the acceptable biological catch until the stock is rebuilt. The socioeconomic effects on the fishing industry compared among the three alternatives are expected to vary significantly.

This document updates the analysis in a programmatic environmental assessment for decisions of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) on Tropical Tunas to include analysis of WCPFC decisions on tropical tunas through the end of 2025, and also includes specific analysis of the rulemaking that NMFS is undertaking to implement WCPFC emergency decisions in a timely manner.

Annual NMFS decision to award PCSRF funding as provided for by Congress.

Wisconsin – Lake Michigan is an 875 square mile area of Lake Michigan with waters extending from Port Washington to Two Rivers. The state of Wisconsin nominated this area as a national marine sanctuary through the Sanctuary Nomination Process with broad community support. The area encompasses historic shipwrecks of national significance that merit the additional management authority of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act. The nominated area contains an extraordinary collection of 39 known shipwrecks, 15 of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) prepared this Supplemental Overseas Environmental Assessment (SOEA) in compliance with the Executive Order (E.O.) 12114, Department of Defense regulations found at 32 Code of Federal Regulations Part 187and the Chief of Naval Operations Instruction 5090.1 and its accompanying manual (M-5090). This SOEA updates and revises the OEA ONR prepared in 2018 and the supplement to that document prepared in 2019, both of which this SOEA incorporates by reference. This SOEA evaluates the potential harm to the environment from ONR Arctic Research Activities that would occur because of changes in the 2018 and 2019 Proposed Actions resulting from revised 2021-2022 research activities. The Naval requirement for this continuing scientific research still relates to the need to understand environmental conditions to ensure combat capable forces ready to deploy worldwide in accordance with Title 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) § 8062, and to support the aims of the Arctic Research and Policy Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 4101 et seq.). For the Arctic this consists of potential submarine and surface ship operations with active sonar for anti-submarine warfare and submarine/surface ship force protection. The characterization of the potential Arctic battlespace, given the changes in water properties and ice cover, is critical to performance predictions for active and passive acoustic systems. The year-round characterization of the Arctic environment requires the development of a navigation system for vehicles operating under the ice through the use of intermittent acoustic source transmissions, and rapid characterization of the environment by leave-behind sources. The purpose of the Proposed Action is still to conduct scientific research in the Arctic and to gather data on environmental conditions and acoustics in an Arctic environment. This SOEA evaluates three alternatives: the No Action Alternative and two Action Alternatives. The No Action Alternative would be limited to a cruise for the retrieval of previously deployed acoustic sources. Alternative 1, the Preferred Alternative, starting with the next research cruise scheduled for October 2021, reflects proposed changes and additions to the location and use of active acoustic sources to improve ONR’s ability to meet scientific objectives including a very low frequency source. Alternative 2 includes everything within the Preferred Alternative except the use of the very low frequency source. In this SOEA, the Navy analyzes potential harm to the environment that could result from the updates to two Action Alternatives in comparison to the No Action Alternative. Only marine mammals were analyzed for potential for “significant harm” (as defined by E.O. 12114) by the Proposed Action updates. This is the fourth year of activities for a longer project. Previous Incidental Take Authorizations (ITAs) have been issued, including 2 standard Incidental Harassment Authorizations (IHAs) and one renewal IHA.

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposes to implement Amendment 6 to the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for the Mariana Archipelago (FEP). If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, Amendment 6 would establish a rebuilding plan with an annual catch limit (ACL) of 31,000 lb starting in 2022. The Council expects the bottomfish stock to be rebuilt within eight years. If NMFS determines that the fishery reaches the ACL, we would close Federal waters to bottomfish fishing until NMFS and Guam develop a coordinated management strategy that ensures that the catch in both Federal and territorial waters is maintained at levels that allow the stock to rebuild.

This SEA updates a 2019 EA and analyzes potential effects of a range of possible annual catch limits (ACL) and accountability measures (AM) for Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) Deep 7 bottomfish for 2021–22, 2022–23, and 2023–24. The preferred ACL is 492,000 lb and is the same ACL as the past 3 years. It is based on a recent stock assessment for MHI Deep 7 bottomfish, which shows the stock is healthy. The proposed action includes an in-season AM and overage adjustments. Recent landings averaged 192,805 lb annually, so NMFS does not anticipate the fishery would reach the proposed limit in any fishing year. The ACL is not expected to change the fishery or have large and adverse effects.

The proposed rule would increase the Gulf gray triggerfish catch limits. The proposed rule would increase the Gulf gray triggerfish ABC to 456,900 lbs ww and retain the ACL equaling the ABC. The ACL sector allocation of 21% commercial (ACL= 95,949 lbs ww) and 79% recreational (ACL= 360,951 lbs ww) would also be retained. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council’s ACL/ACT Control Rule was used to calculate a new buffer between the sector ACLs and ACTs. The commercial ACT would be 88,273 lbs ww (8% buffer) and the recreational ACT would be 274,323 lbs ww (24% buffer). These increased buffers should help with preventing a sector exceeding its ACL and with preventing overfishing. No significant impacts are expected and there are not any known issues or problems.

NMFS proposes to implement annual catch limits (ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs) for four fishing years (2022, 2022, 2024, and 2025) in the main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) for gray jobfish, or uku. The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) recommended the ACLs and AMs in accordance with requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and with the approved processes in the Hawaii Fishery Ecosystem Plan. NMFS is preparing an environmental assessment (EA) to evaluate potential effects of this rule. We do not expect large or adverse environmental effects for the proposed action.

Management Measures developed to limit Pacific Ocean salmon fishery impacts on prey availability for Southern Resident Killer Whales off the Western Coast of the lower 48 contiguous U.S.

Supplemental Environmental Assessment of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service Determination that Seven Hatchery Programs for Snohomish River Salmon as Described in Joint State-Tribal Hatchery and Genetic Management Plans Satisfy the Endangered Species Act Section 4(d) Rule --

The purpose of this SEA is to analyze a new alternative (Alternative 5, Increased Production). The new alternative is based on the applicants’ interest in increasing hatchery production of juvenile coho salmon, chum salmon, and summer-run Chinook salmon. In addition, within this SEA, NMFS will analyze the effects of the new action on endangered Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW), and the importance of Chinook salmon prey to their food base. The increased production will have similar effects as the alternatives analyzed in the EA. There will be low negative genetic, competition, and predation affects to Chinook salmon from the increased production alternative.

This document analyzes a proposed management measure to link the Pacific halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) limit for the Amendment 80 commercial groundfish trawl fleet in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) groundfish fisheries to halibut abundance. The objectives of linking the PSC limit are to minimize halibut PSC to the extent practicable under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) National Standard 9 and to continue achieving optimum yield in the BSAI groundfish fisheries on a continuing basis under MSA National Standard 1. This would also be expected to provide incentives for the Amendment 80 fleet to minimize halibut mortality at all times. Achievement of these objectives could result in additional harvest opportunities in the commercial halibut fishery.