Development of the Marine Fisheries Habitat Assessment Improvement Plan: A national plan to advance marine habitat science

The Habitat Assessment Improvement Plan (HAIP) is the first nationally coordinated plan to focus on the marine fisheries aspects of habitat science. It addresses the lack of knowledge regarding the association of marine species and their habitats, which impedes effective fisheries and habitat management, protection, restoration, and stock assessment. Questionnaire responses from National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) managers and scientists indicated a lack of habitat-specific data, staff to collect such data, and knowledge of interactions within the ecosystem. The HAIP establishes the framework for NMFS to coordinate habitat research, monitoring, and assessments and to increase support for habitat science. The goals of the HAIP are to: (1) Assist NOAA in developing habitat science; (2) Improve our ability to identify essential fish habitat and habitat areas of particular concern; (3) Provide information needed to assess impacts to essential fish habitat; (4) Reduce habitat-related uncertainty in stock assessments; (5) Facilitate a greater number of stock assessments that explicitly incorporate ecosystem considerations and spatial analyses; (6) Contribute to assessments of ecosystem services (i.e. the things people need and care about that are provided by marine systems); and (7) Contribute to ecosystem-based fishery management, integrated ecosystem assessments, and coastal and marine spatial planning.