Southern California Aquaculture Opportunity Area Scoping Meeting

NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region is publishing a Notice of Intent to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the proposed identification of one or more Aquaculture Opportunity Areas to be located in federal waters off the coast of Southern California. The proposed action is a planning action and does not include any activity that would require a permit or authorization as part of planning.

Learn more about this process

In addition to receiving written comments, NOAA Fisheries hosted two virtual public scoping meetings to gather input from stakeholders on the proposed action. The comments received during these scoping meetings will play a key role in 1) informing the scope of the PEIS and 2) helping to identify significant issues to be analyzed in the PEIS.

Please refer to the Notice of Intent for a detailed list of the types of information, data, views, analysis, alternatives, or suggestions that would be helpful to include in your comments to NOAA Fisheries.

Webinar Information

Two virtual public scoping meetings were held on June 27  and July 11, during which the public provided oral comments. Recordings of these online meetings can be found below:

Scoping Meeting #1

June 27, 2022, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm PST

Scoping Meeting #2

July 11, 2022, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm PST

Meeting transcript (PDF, 14 pages)

Written Comments

The public may  submit comments electronically during the 60-day comment period ending at 8:59pm PST on July 22, 2022. Submit comments through regulations.gov by clicking the “Comment” icon, completing the required fields, and entering or attaching comments before clicking “Submit Comment." We are not accepting comments by physical mail due to ongoing pandemic-related telework.

For guidelines on submitting effective public comments, please review these helpful tips.