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Essential Fish Habitat
Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) was defined by the U. Ersus. Congress in the 1996 changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Resource efficiency and Management Act, or Magnuson-Stevens Act, as "those waters and substrate necessary to fish for spawning, breeding, nourishing or growth to maturity. "|1| Utilizing regulations clarified that waters include all aquatic areas and their physical, chemical, and biological properties; substrate comes with the associated biological residential areas that make these areas suited to fish habitats, and the description and identification of EFH should include habitats used anytime during the species' life spiral.|2| EFH involves all types of aquatic habitat, including wetlands, coral reefs, mud, seagrasses, and rivers.|3|
NOAA Fisheries works with the regional fishery management councils to designate EFH using the best available scientific info. EFH has been described for more than a 1, 000 managed species to date.|4| The key purpose of EFH regulations should be to minimize the adverse effects of fishing and non sportfishing impacts on EFH for the maximum extent practicable.
In 1996, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act was amended to establish a fresh requirements to identify and illustrate EFH to protect, conserve and enhance EFH for the benefit of the fisheries.|5| The Magnuson-Stevens Act possesses jurisdiction over the management and conservation of marine fish species. Federal agencies need to consult with NOAA Fisheries the moment their actions or activities may adversely affect an environment identified by federal local fishery management councils or NOAA Fisheries as EFH.|6| On 12 19, 1997, interim last rules were published inside the Federal Register (Vol. sixty two, No . 244) which stipulate procedures for implementation in the EFH provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.|7| These rules were amended by publication of final rules about January 17, 2002 (Vol. 67, No . 12).|8| he rules, in two subparts, address requirements for fishery management strategy (FMP) amendment, and fine detail the coordination, consultation, and recommendation requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Has an effect on from certain fishing practices and coastal and underwater development and may alter, harm, or destroy habitats important for fish. NOAA Fisheries, the regional fishery management local authorities (FMCs), and other federal firms work together to minimize these risks.|13| Congress has created councils to classify unfavorable effects on fishes in relation to types of fishing gear, coast developments and nonpoint and point source pollution, and, evaluating how well every single fishery is managed. The FMCs, with assistance from NOAA Fisheries, has delineated EFH for federally managed variety. As new FMPs will be developed, EFH for recently managed species will also be defined.|14| FMPs need to describe and identify EFH for the fishery, reduce to the extent practicable the adverse effects of fishing about EFH, and identify additional actions to encourage the conservation and enhancement of EFH.
Through consultations, NOAA Fisheries can recommend ways federal agencies may avoid or minimize the adverse effects of their actions on the habitat of federally managed commercial and recreational the fishing industry.|16| Federal actions agencies which fund, licenses, or carry out activities that may adversely affect EFH must consult with NOAA Fisheries.|17| The federal action agency must provide NOAA Fisheries with an analysis of all actions or offered actions authorized, funded, or perhaps undertaken by the agency which may adversely affect EFH.|18| Then NOAA Fisheries will provide the federal actions agency with EFH Conservation recommendations.|19| These types of Conservation Recommendations provide information on steer clear of, minimize, mitigate, or offset those adverse effects.|20| Federal action agencies must provide a written explanation to NOAA Fisheries if these recommendations have not been adopted.|21| NOAA Fisheries must also include measures to minimize the adverse effects of sportfishing gear and fishing actions on EFH as well.|22| In addition , NOAA The fishing industry and the FMCs may discuss and make recommendations to the state agency on their activities which may affect EFH.|23|
Most consultations are done inside the NMFS regional offices: Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO), Southeast Regional Workplace (SERO), West Coast Regional Office (WCRO), Alaska Territorial Office (AKRO), and Pacific cycles Islands Regional Office (PIRO). National consultations spanning multiple regions can be done at NOAA Fisheries Headquarters.
State organizations and private landowners are not needed to consult with NMFS. EFH consultation services are required if the federal government features authorized, funded, or carried out part or all of a proposed activity, and if the action will adversely have an effect on EFH.|24| Negatively affecting EFH includes immediate or indirect physical, chemical or biological alterations in the waters or substrate and loss of, or injury to kinds and their habitat, and other environment components, or reduction of the quality and/or quantity of EFH.
Environment areas of particular concern or HAPCs are considered high main concern areas for conservation, managing, and research.|26| HAPCs are subsets of EFH that merit work because they meet for least one of the following 4 criteria:
provide important environmental function;
are sensitive to environmental degradation;
include a home type that is/will become stressed by development;
include a habitat type that is uncommon.|27|
Current HAPCs contain important habitats like estuaries, canopy kelp, corals, seagrass, and rocky reefs, among other areas of interest. HAPCs happen to be afforded the same regulatory security as EFH and do not leave out activities from occurring inside the area, such as fishing, diving, swimming or surfing.
Essential Fish Habitat is specified for all federally managed fish under the MSA whereas Critical Habitat is designated to get the survival and restoration of species listed because threatened or endangered underneath the Endangered Species Act (ESA).|29| Critical refuge include areas occupied by the threatened or endangered kinds that include physical and scientific features that are essential to the conservation of the species.|30| Critical Habitat is certainly designated as critical at the time a species is listed beneath the ESA.|31| EFH and Critical Habitat differ in terms of designation and rules, but they may overlap for many species such as salmon.|32|
Natural environment characteristics include sediment type, type of bottoms (sand, silt and clay), structures underlying the water surface, and marine community structures. These habitats are essential for fish and ecosystem health. The fundamental habitat structure begins with gunk. Erosion is stabilized by simply submerged aquatic vegetation. There are two main types of bottoms, hard and very soft.|33| A study by simply Christensen at el. (2004) looked at three bottom habitat types (vegetated marsh advantage, submerged aquatic vegetation, and shallow non-vegetated bottom) with regards to juvenile brown shrimp (Farfantepenaeus aztecus). The results from the analysis showed that brown shrimp selected vegetated areas in salinities 15-25 ppt and in addition they would select vegetated areas over marsh edges after they co-occurred. Finding the areas that had the highest abundance helped to identify EFH of teenage brown shrimp.|34|
Hard bottom also known as coral reefs or live bottom delivers hard complex vertical composition for attachment of a dry sponge, seaweed, and coral, which in turn support a diverse reef fish community.|35| This community can comprise invertebra, coral, hard coral, bryozoans, ploychaete worms, tunicates, a range of fin-fishes, alga, and a dry sponge. Areas of compacted or sheered mud and sediment can also be a form of hard bottom.|36|
Soft bottom consists of unconsolidated sediment and unvegetated areas. In some regions soft underside are not protected even though they could be primary nursery areas, anadromous fish spawning areas, and anadromous nursery areas. Attributes that affect soft starting in relation to organisms that utilize them include sediment feed size, salinity, dissolved o2 and flow.
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