Essential Fish Habitat 5-Year Review

NOAA Fisheries announces the availability of the Draft Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Essential Fish Habitat 5-Year Review. The purpose of the Review is to gather relevant new information and determine whether modifications to existing Essential Fish Habitat descriptions and designations are warranted, in compliance with the requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and implementing regulations.

Under the current Fishery Management Plan, NOAA Fisheries uses a two-phase process to update the Highly Migratory Species Essential Fish Habitat.

Phase 1

Development of a draft 5-year review, the public comment process, and the publication of a final 5-year review. If there is no new information that warrants updating the Essential Fish Habitat, we may choose to retain the previously designated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Essential Fish Habitat.

Phase 2

New information would trigger phase 2 of this process, which may include a follow-up action that implements the recommended updates to Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Essential Fish Habitat.

Members of the public are invited to provide comment on the Draft Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Essential Fish Habitat 5-Year Review. Each section provides topic-specific guidance on feedback that would be helpful. Categories of requested information are based on the 10 Essential Fish Habitat components identified in Fishery Management Plan regulations. The draft 5-year review considers information and data that was not previously included in recent updates to Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Essential Fish Habitat, or has become available since publication of Final Amendment 10 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan in 2017.

Comments & Information

You may submit comments, information, or data on Regulations.gov.

To comment by email, include “Atlantic HMS EFH 5-Year Review” in the subject line. Mail to NMFS.SF.HMSEFH@noaa.gov. Information and data submitted by email may be posted for public viewing.

Comments due by July 3, 2023

For more information, please contact Jennifer Cudney (301) 427-8503.