Chinook and Chum Salmon Bycatch Reduction in Alaska Fisheries - Federal Register Rules and Notices

NOAA Fisheries, in consultation with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council), announces its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on management measures to minimize non-Chinook salmon bycatch, particularly bycatch of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) of western Alaska origin (Western Alaska chum), in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).

The management measures analyzed in this EIS would apply exclusively to participants in the Bering Sea pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) fishery, managed under the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI FMP), and consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act), National Standards, and other applicable law. The scope of the EIS will be to analyze the impacts to the human environment resulting from alternatives for measures to minimize non-Chinook salmon bycatch. NMFS will accept written comments from the public to identify the issues of concern and assist the Council and NMFS in determining the appropriate range of alternatives for the EIS.

Comments may be submitted electronically (see box at left) or by mail to:

Gretchen Harrington, Assistant Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region NMFS, Attn: Susan Meyer. Mail comments to P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802–1668.