NOAA Fisheries Releases New Plan to Advance Equity and Environmental Justice in the Southeast

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Key Message:

• NOAA Fisheries Southeast strives to equitably serve all people through our work to manage, conserve, and protect living marine resources and their habitats in the Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, and U.S. Caribbean.
• We developed the new Southeast Equity and Environmental Justice Implementation Planto increase access to the benefits of our work and related opportunities.
• The success of the plan relies on our ongoing commitment to this effort and the support of our partners. If you would like to partner with us, please email us at [email protected].

Background:

NOAA Fisheries Southeast strives to equitably serve all people through the work we do to manage, conserve, and protect living marine resources and their habitats in the Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, and U.S. Caribbean. While our public input processes are intended to provide full access to our decision-making structure, unintentional barriers prevent some voices from being heard. This limits our understanding of the impacts of management and policy decisions. Our new Southeast Equity and Environmental Justice Implementation Plan is intended to address these barriers.

We used several different strategies to engage and include the public in developing the plan, including:

• 20 focus group meetings and related scoping work in numerous communities around the culturally diverse Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, and U.S. Caribbean.
• A broader public request for information published in the Federal Registeron July 21, 2023.
• A multilingual virtual listening session on September 28, 2023.
• Regular and ongoing work with the Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, and Caribbean fishery management councils to discuss public engagement strategies and ways to improve access to fishery opportunities.

Through this work, we connected with hundreds of underserved community members from diverse ethnicities, cultures, genders and sexual orientations, ages, and manners of participation in regional marine fisheries and aquaculture.

The resulting Southeast Equity and Environmental Justice Implementation Plan incorporates immediate or near-term actions that we expect to accomplish with existing funding; and important longer-term actions that will require additional resources. Together these actions are expected to generate a wide range of societal benefits to those who participate or seek to participate in federal fisheries, aquaculture, and the conservation, management, and recovery of our nation's other living marine resources and habitats. In summary, this would be accomplished by:

• Improving our understanding of historical processes that have affected public participation in marine fisheries, aquaculture, and other mission-related activities.
• Further diversifying our communications and outreach platforms to more effectively reach and establish productive linkages with coastal and island communities across the Southeast region.
• Identifying and employing new strategies to enable more meaningful and consistent opportunities for public engagement and participation in our work and decision making processes.
• Collaborating with the fishery management councils to better understand and address complex equity issues associated with limited access fisheries and other regulatory processes.
• Employing new partnerships and strategies to address complex cross-jurisdictional challenges related to seafood imports, loss of fishing-related infrastructure, and the impacts of coastal development and large-scale federal projects on those who depend on living marine resources and habitats for purposes of commerce, recreation, and subsistence.

The Southeast Equity and Environmental Justice Implementation Plan is a living document, to be reviewed and updated every 5 years, or sooner as needed. These planned, periodic reviews will enable us to adapt the plan in response to new information and shifting environmental conditions over time so that we can effectively meet the needs of human communities across the region.

How You Can Help:

Please partner with us to advance equity and environmental justice in the Southeast by emailing us at [email protected].

For More Information:

NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office
NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center
NOAA Fisheries Equity and Environmental Justice Strategy

Sign Up For Text Message Alerts - Find Out About Immediate Openings and Closures

NOAA's Text Message Alert Program allows you to receive important fishery related alerts via text message (SMS). Standard message & data rates may apply. You may opt-out at any time. Text alerts you may receive include:

• Immediate fishery openings and closures
• Any significant changes to fishing regulations that happen quickly

Sign up for one or more of the following groups:

• Gulf of Mexico Recreational Fisheries Related Alerts
  • Text GULFRECFISH to 888777
• Gulf of Mexico Commercial Fisheries Related Alerts
  • Text GULFCOMMFISH to 888777
• South Atlantic Recreational Fisheries Related Alerts
  • Text SATLRECFISH to 888777
• South Atlantic Commercial Fisheries Related Alerts
  • Text SATLCOMMFISH to 888777
• Caribbean Fisheries Related Alerts

Quick Glance Contact Listfor the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office

Permits Mailbox: The Permits Office in St. Petersburg, Florida, now has a Permits mailbox in the front lobby (263 13th Ave. South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701). You can now drop off original permits for permit transfers. Envelopes with information labels will be provided so that your documents can be attached to the correct application. The mailbox will be checked daily. For more information contact the Permits Office at 877-376-4877.

Other contacts:

Media: Allison Garrett, 727-551-5750
Recreational Fishing Coordinator: Sean Meehan, 727-385-5202

Public link

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