December 19, 2018
The Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership (ACFHP) is pleased to announce the launch of its newly revised website, www.atlanticfishhabitat.org. Bold and visually-appealing, the new site seeks to be a resource to partners,as well as those who are working on fish habitat conservation or simply want to become more informed about habitat issues. Throughout the website we highlight how ACFHP works to make the connection – from the headwaters to the continental shelf, between fish and people, and among stakeholders.
The website has improved functionality and is mobile and tablet-friendly. The ‘About Us’ section contains information on our mission and vision, the ACFHP region, our team, guidance documents, and the National Fish Habitat Partnership. The new website also includes pages on each of ACFHP’s priority habitats: submerged aquatic vegetation, shellfish beds, riverine bottom, coral and live/hard bottom, and tidal vegetation. These pages highlight the importance of each habitat to fish and the greater ecosystem, the threats facing each habitat, as well as our conservation work in that habitat.
An exciting feature of the new website is the Species-Habitat Matrix Tool, which evaluates the relative importance of 26 coastal, estuarine, and freshwater habitats to 131 selected fish and invertebrate species. Specifically, the Matrix quantifies the importance of different habitats as shelter, nursery, feeding, or spawning areas for each species during the egg/larval, juvenile/young of year, adult, and spawning adult life stages. The new website tool is a database that allows users to search by species, subregion, habitat, and/or life stage, and populates in real-time. You can download your results, or the entire database, as a CSV file for further analysis. Our hope is that people and organizations will use this information to make better informed, quantifiable decisions about habitat conservation for Atlantic marine species.
The website’s on-the-ground project map identifies both our funded and endorsed projects along the coast, with links to each of the projects. Project pages feature an overview of each project, photos, and links to outreach materials and press on the project. We also have links to our and some of our partners’ outreach materials, and we link to our science and data products.
The ‘Get Involved’ section of the website provides information on our meetings, funding opportunities, project endorsement, the Melissa Laser Fish Habitat Conservation Award, and the various ways to donate to ACFHP and the National Fish Habitat Partnership. You can also sign up for our newsletter and find information on how to join the Partnership.
We invite you to explore the new website, www.atlanticfishhabitat.org, and please contact Lisa Havel, ACFHP Coordinator, at lhavel@asmfc.org, for further information.