Environmental Assessment for Exempted Fishing Permit 99-02 to Test the Effectiveness of Seabird Avoidance Measures Used on Catcher-Processor Vessels Using Hook-and-Line Gear to Fish for Pacific Cod in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area

The groundfish fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone (3 to 200 nautical miles offshore) of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (BSAI) are managed under the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Groundfish Fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area. The FMP was prepared by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The FMP became effective in 1982.

This Environmental Assessment addresses an exempted fishing permit application by the Washington Sea Grant Program to systematically test the effectiveness of seabird avoidance measures on freezer longliners in the BSAI Pacific cod fishery. These measures are intended to reduce the bycatch of the endangered short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria albamis) and other seabird species.