Habitat Research Group
Seafloor images of southeastern Bering Sea (FISHPAC 2006)
RACE Division Groundfish Assessment Program scientists conduct research directed at understanding the role habitat plays in the health and sustainability of marine resources in Alaska. The Essential Fish Habitat (EFH)* provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act mandate NOAA Fisheries to describe and identify EFH of federally managed species, and to protect these areas from adverse impacts due to fishing and other activities. Appropriate measures to protect EFH resources require the best available science.
*The term “Essential Fish Habitat” means those waters and substrate necessary to fish for spawning, breeding, feeding or growth to maturity.
Research Themes
- Habitat Modeling
- identify suitable predictor variables for model building
- develop tools for mapping predictor variables over large areas
- Ecological Impact
- investigate activities with potentially adverse effects on EFH
- Benthic Ecology
- study the ecology of benthic organisms that are key habitat components
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