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Essential Fish Habitat are those areas that have been identified and described by species and lifestage. Fish require healthy surroundings to survive and reproduce. Essential fish haitat includes all types of aquatic habitat - wetlands, coral reefs, sea-grasses, rivers - where fish spawn, breed, feed, or growh to maturity. EFH Mapper Data is a combination of three existing data layers: Essential Fish Habitat (EFH), Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (HAPC) and EFH Areas Protected from Fishing (EFHA).Shapefile was created by merging the New England and Mid Atlantic EFH shapefiles and clipping the results using the regions_new shapefile. Last update as of March 21, 2018. For viewing a spatial representation of EFH, or those habitats that NMFS and the regional fishery management councils have identified and described as necessary to fish for spawning, breeding, feeding or growth to maturity. NMFS and the regional fishery management councils have used the EFH provisions established in Section 303 (a)(7) of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to prevent, mitigate, or minimize adverse effects from fishing on EFH. The Mid-Atlantic includes the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. EFH has been designated and described by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council for 12 managed species in the Greater Atlantic region. There are several species whose habitat extend beyond the area defined in this text. New England includes the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. |