Experience of the San Francisco Bay Subtidal Goals Project - Have the Habitat Objectives Been Used to Inform EFH Consultations?

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service helped to lead the San Francisco Bay Subtidal Habitat Goals Project, a multi-agency, collaborative, non-regulatory effort to improve conservation of San Francisco Bay for fish and wildlife and the many benefits it offers people.  San Francisco Bay is designated as Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) for federally managed Pacific groundfish, coastal pelagics, and Pacific salmonids, and provides rearing habitat and migration corridors for threatened salmon and green sturgeon. The final project report, a 50-year conservation plan, presents a strong vision for how to achieve a net improvement of the subtidal ecosystem in San Francisco Bay through science-based, habitat protection and restoration.  The Report and other project products, which can be accessed at www.sfbaysubtidal.org, include:

• Goals for science, protection, and restoration of underwater habitats in the bay, with detailed and specific objectives and actions for implementation.
• Cross-habitat goals and recommendations to better deal with climate change impacts, invasive species, marine debris, oil spill response, and public awareness and involvement.
• Habitat integration goals for improving connectivity between tidal wetland and offshore subtidal areas, to reduce habitat fragmentation for species that migrate between freshwater, wetlands and the open bay.
• GIS maps of habitat distributions, stressors of concern, and targeted restoration areas.     

 This presentation will focus on how the Subtidal Goals Project has contributed to habitat protection efforts (including EFH consultations), regional restoration endeavors, and research/monitoring prioritization by NMFS, other resource agencies, and non-governmental organizations.