Environmental Assessment for the Issuance of an Exempted Fishing Permit to Test an Electronic Monitoring System to Estimate Halibut Bycatch in the Central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Fishery

This document is an Environmental Assessment (EA) of the potential impacts of issuing an exempted fishing permit (EFP) to allow for the testing of an electronic monitoring (EM) system on trawl vessels fishing in the Central Gulf of Alaska (GOA) rockfish fishery. The system is designed to collect data at-sea that will allow a shoreside reviewer to enumerate the number of halibut discarded at sea and to estimate their lengths. If effective, the EM system may allow improved estimation of halibut bycatch and reduce the need for at-sea observer coverage. The purpose of the EFP is to exempt the applicant from Central GOA rockfish fishery closures to allow the project to be conducted without disruption and without impacting other GOA trawl fisheries. The analysis found no significant impacts on the human environment for this action.