Atlantic sturgeon Gulf subspecies critical habitat for use in ESA/FIFRA consultations

These data identify the critical habitat designated (March 19, 2003, Federal Register Vol. 68, No. 53, Rules and Regulations) under the Endangered Species Act for the Atlantic sturgeon, Gulf subspecies (Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi). The official NMFS critical habitat (SturgeonAtlantic_GulfSubspecies_20030319) for this sturgeon is comprised of both riverine critical habitat (line) data, Units 1 through 7, and marine/estuarine critical habitat (polygon) data, Units 8 through 14. Together the polygons and lines represent the entire final critical habitat designation.Critical habitat constitutes areas considered essential for the conservation of a listed species. These areas provide notice to the public and land managers of the importance of the areas to the conservation of this species. Special protections and/or restrictions are possible in areas where Federal funding, permits, licenses, authorizations, or actions occur or are required. The purpose of these data is to visually represent the critical habitat areas for GIS analysis and display. Omissions of river distributaries may be possible due to the extent of source data (NHD) and because a number of the smaller streams are not named and easily identifiable. Based on the legal narrative unit descriptions in the Federal Register, all distributaries are included; however, they may not be graphically represented in this dataset.

This spatial data file was modified from NMFS’s “agency-official” species critical habitat data to aid in the ESA/FIFRA section 7 pesticide consultation process. For example, existing data were adapted to incorporate associated watersheds where applicable, based on the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset HUC-12 data (https://www.usgs.gov/national-hydrography/watershed-boundary-dataset). The modifications to the NMFS critical habitat spatial data make the data more compatible for future analyses with EPA’s Use Data Layers (UDLs). The following “Description” is from the original, “agency-official” data that was used to make this HUC-based map. Most of the metadata record for this species matches the “agency-official” record; however, NMFS added a new "Citation", "File Identifier", “Credits”, “Point of Contact”, and “Lineage Process Step” that are unique to this HUC-based critical habitat data.

see access and use contraints information.

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