NOAA ‘s National Marine Fisheries Service is soliciting public comments on the Alaska Groundfish Fisheries Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands groundfish fishery management plans. Due to the size and complexity of the document, the agency has extended the comment period an additional 60 days. Public comments can now be submitted until
June 25, 2001.

The SEIS performs several important functions:

• It is a planning and reference document to describe the current management regime for groundfish fisheries in Alaska;
• it describes and analyzes current knowledge about the physical, biological, and socioeconomic factors in order to assess impacts caused by past and current fishery activities;
• it provides the environmental baseline analysis that will be used to shape future management policy and a future range of potential management actions;
• it examines the effects of the current groundfish fishery management regime, as well as selected alternative management regimes, on the human environment.

The Alaska Groundfish Fisheries Programmatic SEIS is on-line at the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Region web site www.fakr.noaa.gov. Copies of the SEIS in printed or CD format can be obtained by contacting Steven K. Davis, NMFS, 222 West 7th Avenue, Room 517, Anchorage, AK 99513 or steven.k.davis@noaa.gov.

The National Marine Fisheries Service 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.