NOAA Fisheries News Releases
NEWS RELEASE
July 17, 2006
Sheela McLean
(907) 586-7032
Habitat Protection Increases Vessel Monitoring in Alaskan Waters
Increased protections for essential fish habitat in Alaska waters mean increased requirements for vessel monitoring systems, NOAA Fisheries officials report.
“We’re reminding fishermen that all vessels using a groundfish federal fishing permit or a federal crab vessel permit in the Aleutian islands sub-area must have an operational vessel monitoring system starting July 28,” said NOAA Fisheries’ Acting Alaska Regional Administrator Doug Mecum. “The same is true for all federally-permitted vessels operating with mobile bottom contact gear in the Gulf of Alaska.” The new regulations define mobile bottom contact gear as non-pelagic trawl, dredge, or dinglebar gear.
“Many fishing vessels in Alaska already carry vessel monitoring systems. Extending the requirements to more vessels will allow managers to monitor more fishing vessel locations and help ensure that essential fish habitat is protected,” Mecum said.
Electronic vessel monitoring systems (often called ‘VMS’) periodically report—through satellite communications—the location and identity of the VMS-carrying vessel. The information is beamed from the vessel, bounced off the satellite and received at stations where it is entered and recorded in a computer system, allowing monitoring and tracking of fishing vessels in the open ocean.
New regulations close large areas of the Alaskan sea floor to fishing gear that contacts the bottom in order to protect sensitive habitats. They establish a network of fishing closures in the Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska, protecting habitat areas including cold water corals and other sensitive features that are slow to recover once disturbed by fishing gear or other activities.
Details of the new rules, which were developed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and approved by NOAA Fisheries, can be viewed at www.fakr.noaa.gov/habitat/efh.htm
The new rules do not apply to vessels fishing in state waters under a State of Alaska permit. The State Board of Fish is scheduled to consider counterpart regulations for state-permitted vessels in October.
General information about VMS in Alaska is at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ole/ak_vms.html
Questions may also be directed to NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Law Enforcement in Alaska at 907-586-7225.
NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) 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 www.fakr.noaa.gov or at www.afsc.noaa.gov
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