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Home NOAA's
Fisheries Service Protects Bering Sea Habitat
NOAA's Fisheries Service Protects Bering
Sea Habitat
August 7, 2008
NOAA's
Fisheries Service has
prohibited the use of bottom trawl gear in 130,000 square
nautical miles of the Bering Sea, an area
where the gear has not been used previously, to protect the
sea bottom habitat.
“This
allows bottom fishing to continue where it has occurred historically,
while protecting undisturbed habitats and nearshore bottom
habitat that support subsistence marine resources and blue
king crab,” said Doug Mecum, acting administrator
for the Alaska
region of NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “The rule,
recommended by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council,
protects large areas of sea bottom for the
future, with minimal effect on today's fisheries.”
The
agency received over 6,000 public comments on the proposed
rule, which was released for review in March. The majority
of comments supported the action. No changes were made in
the final rule from the proposed rule. The new closure is
in addition to about 290,000 square nautical miles of habitat
in the North Pacific that came under new protections in 2006.
Newly
closed are Bering Sea Habitat Conservation Area, the largest
area covered by the new rule; the St. Lawrence Island Habitat
Conservation Area; the St. Matthew Island Habitat Conservation
Area; and the Nunivak Island, Etolin Strait, and Kuskokwim
Bay Habitat Conservation Area.
Closing
waters around St. Matthew Island will protect habitat for
blue king crab, a species which is still
depleted in spite of fishing closures in place since 1999.
Closures around St. Lawrence Island and Nunivak Island and
within Etolin Strait and Kuskokwim Bay support subsistence
species such as halibut, which inhabit the sea
floor, and walrus, which feed from the
sea.
In
one of the areas closed to commercial bottom trawling, the
Northern Bering Sea Research Area, scientists will study the
effects of bottom trawling on habitat.
The
new rule implements Amendment 89 to the Fishery Management
Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands
Management Area. The closures apply to federally permitted
fishing vessels. Maps of the new closed area and the final
rule and responses to public comments are available online.
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