Habitat protection activities will strive to avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts from coastal development projects to living marine resource habitats.  The majority of these efforts will be conducted pursuant to our statutory and regulatory responsibilities under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, and National Environmental Policy Act.  Implementation will involve extensive coordination with federal, state, and local agencies.  Where appropriate, the Coastal Habitat Team will contribute to the development of policies that improve regulation and management of habitat impacts.  Major development activities in the foreseeable future include dredging, port development, marina development, ocean energy production, and aquaculture. 

In addition, the Coastal Habitat Team will focus on refining essential fish habitat designations for federally managed fish species by incorporating increasingly detailed information regarding the relative abundance, growth, survival, and production rates of these species associated with different habitat types.  Efforts will also focus on the development and analysis of measures to reduce adverse fishing effects on essential fish habitat.

The Coastal Habitat Team will extend habitat protection beyond the regulatory context by engaging the general public and providing stakeholders with the tools and information needed to proactively protect coastal and marine fish habitat.  The goal of outreach activities is to promote environmental stewardship and literacy and increase the number of stakeholders and coastal communities incorporating ecosystem and sustainable development principles into planning and management.  The Coastal Habitat Team is involved with the development of a national Cooperative Habitat Protection Program that would provide funding and technical assistance to stakeholders for specific projects that protect marine and estuarine fish habitat.    

The Coastal Habitat Team will promote restoration of habitats that benefit estuarine and marine fish by coordinating with other NOAA divisions, agencies and stakeholders in restoration planning activities and providing technical and financial support for individual restoration projects.  The Coastal Habitat Team is a lead agency for the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project, an excellent example of this collaborative approach, where public agencies, non-profit organizations, scientists, and local communities are working cooperatively to acquire and restore rivers, streams, and wetlands in coastal southern California.