Feds to Analyze Environmental Impacts of Western Pacific Longline Fisheries for Bigeye and Tuna
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] - February 17, 2017
HONOLULU -- The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced on Monday that it will prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) on the U.S. Pacific Island deep-set tuna longline fisheries, which target bigeye tuna.
The PEIS will analyze the environmental impacts of management of deep-set tuna longliners, which operate out of Hawaii, American Samoa, and the U.S. West Coast. The need for the proposed action is to manage deep-set tuna longline fisheries under an adaptive management framework that allows for timely management responses to changing environmental conditions, consistent with domestic and international conservation and management measures.
The PEIS will be developed in coordination with the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council based in Honolulu.
Tuna longline fisheries use two distinct gear types: shallow-set vessels target swordfish near the surface and deep-set vessels target tunas deeper than 100 meters...
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