Environmental Assessment for Exempted Fishing Permit 99-02 to Test the Effectiveness of Seabird Avoidance Measures Used on Catcher-Processor Vessels Using Hook-and-Line Gear to Fish for Pacific Cod in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area

The groundfish fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (3 to 200 miles offshore) of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) are managed under the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish Fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area (FMP). The FMP was prepared by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) and became effective in 1982. This Environmental Assessment (EA) addresses an exempted fishing permit (EFP) application by the Washington Sea Grant Program (WSGP) to systematically test the effectiveness of seabird avoidance measures on freezer-longliners in the BSAI Pacific cod fishery that are intended to reduce the bycatch of the endangered short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria albamis) and other seabird species. 1999 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) Library Public Domain 1861