Open Ocean

Administrative Oversight and Comprehensive Planning

Administrative Oversight and Comprehensive Planning

The Oceanic Fish Restoration Project (OFRP), previously named the Pelagic Longline Bycatch Reduction Project in the Final Phase IV Early Restoration Plan, is being implemented as a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), pelagic longline fishermen, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to restore pelagic fish biomass through actions that are expected to reduce fish mortality from bycatch and regulatory discards in the U.S. Atlantic pelagic longline (PLL) fishery operating in the Gulf (referred to as the Gulf PLL fishery).

This project repaired and enhanced the existing Jeff Friend Trail located on the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in coastal Alabama. The aged boardwalk and gravel trail were repaired and improved to enhance access by persons with disabilities and the quality of visitor experience. Construction of an observation platform along the trail and the widening of two accessible parking spaces to better accommodate visitors were also completed. The project is not expected to significantly increase visitation, but does provide a safe and enhanced experience for visitors to the refuge.

This project partially restored lost recreational opportunities on lands owned by the Department of the Interior caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by improving future visitor use and experiences at the Davis Bayou Area of Gulf Islands National Seashore. Project objectives were to implement roadway improvements for the benefit of bicyclists and pedestrians by widening a 1.82-mile length of Park Road from Highway 90 to Robert McGhee Rd. Two multiple-use bicycle-pedestrian lanes -- one on each side of the road -- have been constructed.

The goal of this restoration project was to restore a portion of the lost visitor use of Gulf Islands National Seashore (GUIS) caused by the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill by providing two 150-passenger ferry vessels for use in Pensacola Bay and for traveling between the City of Pensacola, Pensacola Beach, and the Fort Pickens area of GUIS.

The restoration "approach" (from the PDARP/PEIS) is to "enhance public access to natural resources for recreational use" and the "technique" is to "construct recreational infrastructure."

This project enhances recreational use and visitor satisfaction by removing asphalt debris (primarily asphalt fragments and road-base rock) from the beach sand at Gulf Islands National Seashore (GUIS). This debris has been scattered widely over some or all of 2,017 acres and 14 linear miles of the Fort Pickens, Santa Rosa, and Perdido Key areas of the National Park Service (NPS) Florida District of GUIS. There is a small, two-mile-long stretch on the Gulf side of the Fort Pickens area where fragments of the old road were removed from the tidal zone.