Environmental Assessment for an Extension of an Emergency Rule to Implement Reasonable and Prudent Steller Sea Lion Protection Measures in the Pollock Fisheries of the BSAI and the Groundfish Fishery of the GOA
July 16, 1999
This emergency rule would temporally and spatially disperse fishing effort by pollock fisheries in the BSAI and GOA and create pollock trawl exclusion zones around important Steller sea lion rookeries and haulouts.
In a Biological Opinion dated December 3, 1998, NOAA Fisheries determined that the Alaska pollock fisheries, as proposed for the years 1999 to 2002, were likely to:
- jeopardize the continued existence of the endangered western population of Steller sea lions
- adversely modify its critical habitat
In response to this jeopardy determination, NMFS published an emergency interim rule effective January 20, 1999 through July 19, 1999 that modified the Alaska pollack fisheries according to alternatives set out in the Biological Opinion. This analysis examines the extension of this emergency interim rule for the second half of 1999. A subsequent revision of this analysis will be prepared lo analyze the permanent rule for the year 2000 and beyond.