Essential Fish Habitat

Fish and other marine species depend on their habitat to survive and reproduce. NOAA Fisheries works to identify and protect essential fish habitat.

National

Essentially, Fish Habitat

Fish and other marine species depend on their habitat to survive and reproduce. Congress improved the nation's primary fisheries law in 1996 to recognize the importance of healthy habitat for commercial and recreational fisheries.

Protecting and restoring Essential Fish Habitat has helped to maintain productive fisheries and rebuild depleted fish stocks in the United States. NOAA Fisheries has used EFH authorities to support the $200 billion U.S. fishing industry while protecting more than 800 million acres of habitat. Our economy and fishing industry benefit from sustainable fisheries supported by productive habitats that provide high-quality seafood.

We work quietly and efficiently—mostly behind the scenes—to identify and protect EFH. We work with partners like regional fishery management councils and use the best available scientific information to identify, describe, and map EFH for all federally managed fish species. Fishery management councils use this information to pinpoint and protect sensitive habitats by limiting certain fishing gear in those areas.

Consultations

A consultation with NOAA Fisheries is required whenever a federal agency, including the military, works in an area that will adversely affect essential fish habitat. Together, the agency and NOAA determine how best to conduct coastal development while supporting fish habitat and minimizing or avoiding environmental damage. Our EFH conservation efforts function like federal dietary recommendations: we help people make good choices with long-term benefits. Every year, our habitat experts advise agencies on hundreds of projects, from port expansions to offshore energy development. These consultations ensure that publicly-funded projects do not carelessly destroy habitat.

Read more about EFH authorities in the Magnuson-Stevens Act and its official wording in the EFH regulatory guidelines. Access habitat conservation and restoration policy directives or contact an EFH specialist in your region.

Managers need the highest level information on EFH. Currently, the quantity of information decreases at each successive level.

Underwater Neighborhoods

Using the best available science, NOAA Fisheries and regional fishery management councils have identified and mapped EFH for each life stage of nearly 1,000 federally-managed species. You can find this information in the regional fishery management councils' fishery management plans and the EFH Mapper.

EFH includes all types of aquatic habitat where fish spawn, breed, feed, or grow to maturity, such as:

Wetlands.
Coral reefs.
Seagrasses.
Rivers.

These habitats are "essential" because, without them, fish would not be able to survive.

Location, Location, Location

High priorities for EFH conservation are called Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (HAPC) and merit special attention from NOAA Fisheries. These areas include, for example, coastal estuaries, canopy kelp, shallow corals, seagrass, and rocky reefs.

HAPCs meet the following conditions:

Major ecological functions
Sensitivity to decline
Stress from development
Rare habitat