NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act)

"This Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) analyzes fishing for tropical tunas (bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), and skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis)) by U.S. commercial fishing vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) under regulations proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in accordance with resolutions of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC). The IATTC Convention Area includes the waters of the EPO bounded by the west coast of the Americas, the 50° N. and 50° S. parallels, and the 150° W. meridian. IATTC Resolutions on tropical tuna have been adopted by the IATTC since 1998. Resolutions for bigeye and yellowfin have been revised through the years to also include skipjack tuna and to implement both catch and effort controls for commercial purse seine (PS) and longline (LL) vessels fishing in the IATTC Convention Area. These resolutions are agreed upon through consensus from all IATTC members, after scientific review of the IATTC Scientific Advisory Committee and the IATTC scientific staff. NMFS is obligated to implement and enforce regulations consistent with IATTC resolutions. Given that the EPO stocks of bigeye and yellowfin tuna are near fully exploited (Aires-da-Silva, Minte-Vera, & Maunder, 2017; Minte-Vera, Aires-da-Silva, & Maunder, 2017), NMFS anticipates that the IATTC (with input from the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Delegation) will continue to adopt a suite of management measures for tropical tunas into the future. Therefore, this PEA analyzes a broad range of alternatives. The PEA will assess the potential environmental impacts on the human environment that could result from fishing by U.S. commercial vessels under the 2017 IATTC resolution, as well as similar actions in future years. If future IATTC resolutions fall within the scope of those analyzed in this PEA, and the impacts or the affected environment have not significantly changed, this document may be used to analyze the impacts of those actions"--Introduction.

Environmental Assessment