The project provided critical support to NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in its efforts to fulfill its responsibilities under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act related to essential fish habitat (EFH).  NMFS was required to provide the fishery management councils with information and recommendations on EFH for fisheries under each Council's authority.  NMFS assistance was necessary to enable the councils to identify EFH, the adverse impacts on that habitat, and the actions that should be considered to ensure the conservation and enhancement of that habitat.  Under this project, Saltonstall-Kennedy funds were used by the NMFS Office of Habitat Conservation to (1) develop protocols for mapping EFH using geographic information systems, (2) generate databases from which maps of EFH could be produced, and (3) produce maps of EFH for species covered by fishery management plans.  The efforts undertaken as part of this project made it possible for the fishery management councils to develop EFH amendments for fishery management plans by the legislatively mandated deadline in October 1998.