Supplement to the Environmental Assessment for Restructuring the Program for Observer Procurement and Deployment in the North Pacific

Under the North Pacific Groundfish and Halibut Observer Program, NOAA Fisheries deploys observers on vessels and  in  processing  facilities  to  obtain  information  necessary  to  conserve  and  manage  the  groundfish  and  halibut fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Aleutian Islands.  This analysis supplements the 2011 Environmental Assessment for Restructuring the Program for Observer Procurement and Deployment in the North Pacific.  NOAA Fisheries prepared this supplement in response to a Court Order to consider whether the restructured Observer Program would yield reliable, high quality data given likely variations in costs and revenues.  This supplement analyzes new information since the 2011 Environmental Assessment.  NOAA Fisheries has collected and analyzed observer data, costs, and fee revenue from two complete years under the new program,  2013  and  2014.  This  technical  memorandum  contains  the  same  information  as  the  Final  Supplemental Environmental Assessment published by NOAA Fisheries in September 2015.