Alaska Groundfish Fisheries Programmatic Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and Supplemental Information Report
November 01, 2015
The 2004 Final Alaska Groundfish Fisheries Programmatic Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement serves as the primary decision document for determining the future overarching management policies and directions of the Fishery Management Plan for the Groundfish Fishery of the Gulf of Alaska and the Fishery Management Plan for the Groundfish Fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area.
The Programmatic Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement serves as the current primary environmental review document supporting the fishery management plans. It summarizes and analyzes the best scientific information about the natural and physical environment in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and Bering Sea and Aleutians Islands (BSAI) areas. It also analyzes people's relationship with that environment. It assesses the environmental impacts resulting from past and present fishery management regimes and from the expected impacts of alternative future regimes. The original Environmental Impact Statements for the fishery management plans were prepared approximately 25 years ago. Significant environmental and fishery changes have occurred since then.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) developed its groundfish management policy in 2004, following a comprehensive review of the BSAI and GOA groundfish fisheries. The Alaska Groundfish Fisheries Programmatic Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (2004 PSEIS; NMFS 2004) evaluated the cumulative changes in the management of the groundfish fisheries since the implementation of the fishery management plans and considered a broad array of policy-level programmatic alternatives. On the basis of the analysis, the Council adopted a management approach statement, and nine policy goal statements with 45 accompanying objectives.