WCR Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Essential Fish Habitat Geodatabase

Essential fish habitat (EFH) of Highly Migratory Species (HMS) within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the U.S. West Coast.The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) requires that regional management councils describe EFH in their fishery management plans (FMPs), that they minimize to the extent practicable adverse effects on EFH from fishing activities, and that federal agencies consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service on activities that may adversely affect EFH, among other things. Actions that occur outside of EFH, but that may adversely affect EFH, also warrant an EFH consultation. EFH means those waters and substrate necessary to fish for spawning, breeding, feeding, or growth to maturity (50 CFR 600.10). FMPs must describe and identify EFH in text that clearly states the habitats or habitat types determined to be EFH for each life stage of the managed species, if possible. The text descriptions are ultimately determinative of the limits of EFH. Those text descriptions of HMS EFH can be found in the HMS FMP available on the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) website: https://www.pcouncil.org/. In addition, FMPs must include maps that display, within the constraints of available information, the geographic locations of EFH or the geographic boundaries within which EFH for each species and life stage is found (50 CFR 600.815(a)(1)(v)(A)). This Geographic Information System (GIS) data which depicts the EFH of HMS within the EEZ off the U.S. West Coast, was developed to meet that requirement.This geodatabase (GDB) contains 12 feature classes: there is one feature class that has all the HMS combined and there are 11 feature classes for each individual species' EFH. The GDB and feature class naming convention contains the date (YYYYMMDD) that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) approved amendment 8 to the FMP updating the HMS EFH components. The Council includes the following species in its HMS FMP:Tunas: albacore, yellowfin, bigeye, skipjack, and Pacific bluefinSharks: common thresher, shortfin mako, blueBillfish/swordfish: striped marlin, swordfishOther: dolphinfish (also known as dorado and Mahimahi)

This geodatabase depicts the boundaries of essential fish habitat (EFH) of Highly Migratory Species (HMS) within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off the U.S. West Coast. The geodatabase contains 11 individual feature classes for each of the 11 HMS and includes 1 feature class of all HMS combined.

EFH for all species managed under the HMS FMP includes the entire U.S. West Coast EEZ seaward of the 12 m depth contour. While HMS may occur in shallow water <12 m, they occur primarily in deeper waters and these shallow regions including bays and estuaries are not considered essential. The high productivity and presence of diverse fish, squid and crustacean species make the California Current a suitable habitat for feeding and growth to maturity for HMS.

When evaluating the effective use of EFH data in GIS, consider the following spatial data caveats:• To maintain a conservatively inclusive boundary while using consistent coastwide data for the eastern boundary of EFH, some data may overlap land. This overlap can result in overly inclusive data, which may not be suitable for analyses requiring more precise inland mapping. While such errors might be negligible in large-scale maps, they become problematic when accurate information is needed for specific locations.• Directly outside the mouth of San Francisco Bay, the nearshore extent was adjusted for clarity and consistency with the text description, indicating that EFH extends seaward beyond the -12 m depth contour but excludes the bay.This spatial data is intended to assist the public and our partners with visually interpreting HMS EFH designations. Please refer to the HMS FMP for official text descriptions of EFH.These data are a generalized interpretation of the textual description of EFH and do not fully represent the complexity of the habitats described in the FMP. The textual description of the EFH is always ultimately determinative of the limits of EFH.

HMS GIS data was developed using one or more of the following: 1) existing species distributions in the eastern North Pacific from published sources including the initial EFH descriptions, 2) expert opinion and 3) a review of fisheries data

GIS data used to guide and establish boundaries for EFH data creation include:

1) Western extent:

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

Data Source: https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/data/us-maritime-limits-and-boundaries.html

2) Eastern extent:

A -12 meter contour depth was developed from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Coastal Relief Models;

Vol. 6: Southern California (2003) Vol. 7: Central Pacific (2003) and Vol.8: Northwest Pacific (2003)

Data Source: Coastal Relief Model (CRM) - Download Date 8/2024

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/coastal-relief-model

3) At the mouth of San Francisco Bay (for applicable HMS species in this area: Albacore Tuna, Blue Shark, Common thresher shark, Pacific bluefin tuna, Shortfin mako shark, Swordfish),

the COLREGS Demarcation Line was used as the eastern extent.

Data Source: Marine Cadastre

https://hub.marinecadastre.gov/datasets/eeec3469795243f7bf91861e00fb6f40_0/about