NOAA has released final revised management plans, regulations and a joint final environmental impact statement for Cordell Bank, Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay national marine sanctuaries. The plans include the expansion of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary by 775 square miles to include the Davidson Seamount, one of the largest known underwater mountains in U.S. coastal waters and home to a wide variety of marine species.

The NOAA research ship Albatross IV was decommissioned today, ending its distinguished 45-year career in service to the nation. The vessel sailed over 655,000 miles on 453 research cruises, primarily fisheries surveys off the northeastern coast of the United States. These surveys created the world’s longest continuous study of fish population data.

NOAA has released new scientific information showing a decline in the walleye pollock biomass that has the agency recommending a cut to the pollock catch for 2009 in the eastern Bering Sea.

NOAA will conduct five public meetings in December to gather comments from individuals, organizations and government agencies on key issues relating to the management of Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

The U.S. departments of Interior and Commerce today jointly announced the availability of the final Framework for the National System of Marine Protected Areas of the United States, completing a cooperative, multi-year effort to provide a comprehensive approach to the protection of the nation’s natural and cultural marine treasures.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service today announced that several Northwest Indian tribes and the state of Washington will be eligible for up to a total of $2 million to assist tribal and non-tribal communities affected by the commercial fishery failure in Fraser River sockeye salmon.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service today announced the states of Massachusetts and Maine will each be eligible for up to $2 million and New Hampshire will be eligible for up to $1 million in disaster aid to assist the shellfishing industries affected by this year’s closures due to the harmful algal bloom, commonly known as a red tide.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service today announced that the states of Maryland and Virginia will each be eligible for up to $10 million to assist watermen who have been economically hurt by the commercial fishery failure in the soft shell and peeler blue crab fishery in Chesapeake Bay.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service today announced the state of Louisiana will be eligible for up to $40 million and Texas will be eligible for up to $7 million in disaster aid to restore and rebuild the states’ fish habitats and fishing industries devastated by hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

NOAA today issued a biological opinion to the Environmental Protection Agency that found three chemicals used in pesticides – diazonin, malathion, and chlorpyrifos - are likely to jeopardize 27 populations of salmon on the West Coast that are listed as either endangered or threatened. The opinion calls for buffer zones next to salmon streams where the chemicals are used.