Aleutian Islands Fishery Ecosystem Plan

The Council has developed an Aleutian Islands Fishery Ecosystem Plan (AI FEP). The AI FEP is a strategic policy and planning document, to guide the Council in its management actions relating to the Aleutian Islands. The Aleutian Island ecosystem is complex, and is the least predictable of the ecosystems in which the Council manages. The FEP is intended to be an educational tool and resource that can provide the Council with both an ‘early warning system,’ and an ecosystem context for fishery management decisions affecting the Aleutian Islands area. This plan should help the Council respond to changing conditions in a proactive rather than reactive mode.

The FEP is a living document, in which ecosystem interactions, indicator status, research priorities, and data gaps are periodically updated by the Aleutian Islands Ecosystem Team. While the Council recognizes that the FEP is a work in progress, the document can immediately be used to improve management action analyses, and to provide a broader understanding of actions affecting the Aleutian Islands ecosystem. Additionally, through the identification of indicators and the assessment of risk, the FEP provides directions and priorities for further study.

Boundary of the AI FEP
For the purposes of this Fishery Ecosystem Plan, the Aleutian Islands ecosystem is defined as the portion of the archipelago ranging from Samalga Pass (at 169ºW) to the western boundary of the exclusive economic zone, at 170ºE. Samalga Pass represents a known ecological boundary with the neighboring eastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska ecosystems. This boundary is also approximately similar to an important management boundary for the Federal groundfish fishery.

Aleutian Islands FEP

Aleutian Islands Ecosystem Team

The Council created a technical AI Ecosystem Team to develop and update the FEP. Team members, with their associated area of expertise, are listed below.

AI Ecosystem Team Terms of Reference 4/10

Meetings

Team Members

NPFMC:      Diana Evans (management)
NMML:       Tom Gelatt (marine mammals)
PMEL:        Carol Ladd (oceanography)
ADFG:        Forrest Bowers (state fisheries)
USFWS:     TBD (seabirds)
NPRB:        Francis Wiese (research)
AKR:          John Olson (habitat, GIS)
AFSC:
Sandra Lowe (Atka mackerel)
Steve Barbeaux (pollock)
Paul Spencer (rockfish)
Kerim Aydin (modeling)
Jennifer Sepez (socioeconomics)
Stefani Zador (ecosystem SAFE)