NOAA Fisheries News Releases
NEWS RELEASE
March 7, 2008
Sheela McLean, Public Affairs
(907) 586-7032
NOAA Fisheries rule would protect seafloor habitat from bottom trawling
Today NOAA Fisheries published a proposed rule that would prohibit bottom trawling in certain waters of the Bering Sea in order protect the sea floor habitat.
Public comment on the proposed rule must be received by April 21, 2008.
“The North Pacific Fishery Management Council was thinking ahead when it proposed these changes,” said Doug Mecum, Acting Administrator for the Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries. “The proposed rule would protect large areas of undisturbed sea bottom for the future, with minimal impact to today’s fisheries.”
The proposed rule would close certain locations that have not been previously fished with bottom trawl gear, nearshore bottom habitat areas that support subsistence marine resources, and a research area for further study of the potential impacts of bottom trawling on sea floor habitat.
The rule would close waters around St Matthew Island to protect habitat for blue king crab, a species which is still depleted in spite of fishing closures in place since 1999. Closures of waters around St. Lawrence Island and Nunivak Island and within Etolin Strait and Kuskokwim Bay would support subsistence species such as halibut, which inhabit the sea floor, and walrus, which feed from the sea floor.
In 2006, NOAA Fisheries implemented essential fish habitat protection measures for federally managed fisheries in the Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska. The 2006 measures did not include the Bering Sea subarea because the North Pacific Fishery Management Council decided to undertake additional analysis to identify bottom habitat concerns and to develop potential conservation measures. The currently proposed closures are the product of further analysis and debate, and are in addition to the 2006 essential fish habitat protection measures.
The 2006 closures protected almost 290,000 square nautical miles of habitat in the North Pacific. The proposed rule would add approximately 130,000 square nautical miles of area closed to bottom trawling.
Details of the proposed rule and maps of the proposed areas to be closed to bottom trawling and the proposed research area are available from the Alaska Region website at http://www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/habitat/efh.htm.
For further information, contact Melanie Brown at 907-586-7228 or melanie.brown@noaa.gov.
Comments should be addressed to Sue Salveson, Assistant Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region, NMFS, Attn: Ellen Sebastian.
Comments, identified by 0648-AW06, can be sent:
- electronically via the Federal eRulemaking Portal website at http://www.regulations.gov.
- by mail sent to P. O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802.
- by fax to (907) 586-7557.
- by hand delivery to the Federal Building: 709 West 9th Street, Room 420A, Juneau, AK.
NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA 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. To learn more about NOAA Fisheries in Alaska, please visit our websites at: alaskafisheries.noaa.gov or at: www.afsc.noaa.gov.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.