Final Environmental Assessment for 2025 Ocean Salmon Fisheries Management Measures

The development of annual management measures for West Coast salmon fisheries is a well-documented and public process. Alternatives for annual management measures are developed at the March meeting of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council). At this meeting, the previous year’s fisheries are reviewed, and alternatives are developed for the current year’s fisheries after considering projected stock abundances, conservation objectives in the Fishery Management Plan (FMP), and compliance with the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and other relevant laws, as well as international agreements under the Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST). Public meetings are held in Washington, Oregon, and California in late March to give the public the opportunity to provide comments on the alternatives. The Council meets again in April to consider public and agency input on the alternatives and to develop and adopt a preferred alternative. Environmental impacts of the preferred alternative are within the range of impacts analyzed for the preliminary alternatives, although new fisheries data developed between March and April, especially regarding fisheries north of Cape Falcon, may require modification of the range of impacts. During this process, the Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) develop a series of documents that describe the development and analysis of the alternatives. These documents collectively form the basis for the Environmental Assessment (EA) for NMFS’ analysis of the proposed action of adopting the 2025 ocean salmon fisheries specifications and management measures under the National Environmental Policy Act.