Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Identification of Aquaculture Opportunity Areas in U.S. Federal Waters off of Southern California

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) West Coast Region has developed a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS), in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), that analyzes the potential impacts to the human environment that could result from identifying Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs) in Federal waters in the Southern California Bight (SCB) and evaluates the impacts of siting aquaculture in those locations. The intent of this PEIS is to support long-term planning for offshore aquaculture. This PEIS considers a long-term planning effort that is not a regulatory or permitting action and does not propose to authorize or permit any specific aquaculture-related activities or propose to approve any individual aquaculture projects.