Alaska Essential Fish Habitat Reviews

2022 Essential Fish Habitat 5-Year Review

Cloud sponge with small crustaceans (euphausiids).

The Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) 5-Year Review is a mechanism to ensure NOAA Fisheries and Fishery Management Councils incorporate the most recent and best science available into fishery management for EFH. EFH regulations state that the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (the Council) and NOAA Fisheries should conduct a complete review of EFH provisions of  Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) at least once every 5 years and revise or amend the EFH provisions as warranted based on available information. The review is to evaluate: 1) published scientific literature, 2) unpublished scientific reports, 3) information solicited from interested parties, and 4) previously unavailable or inaccessible data. In 2023, the Council revised the EFH sections of its FMPs to address the results of the 5-year review.

EFH 5-Year Review Documents

Federal Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) under jurisdiction of the Council and NOAA Fisheries.

• BSAI Groundfish FMP
• GOA Groundfish FMP
• BSAI Crab FMP
• Salmon in the EEZ FMP
• Scallops off Alaska FMP
• Arctic
• EFH 5-Year Review For 2015, Summary Report,  July 2017
• Impacts to Essential Fish Habitat from Non-fishing Activities in Alaska, June 2023
• Assessment of the effects of fishing on Essential Fish Habitat in Alaska, April 2017
• Fishing Effects Model Description in the North Pacific, April 2017

Supporting Documents

• 2015 and 2012 Omnibus Amendments
• Independent Review of NOAA Fisheries' Evaluation of the Effects of Fishing on Essential Fish Habitat, 2004

More Information

Learn more about :

• Essential Fish Habitat in Alaska 
• Habitat Research in Alaska
• Conserving Habitat in the Alaska Region