"This Environmental Assessment (EA) analyzes proposed revisions, and alternatives to those revisions, to the Federal American lobster regulations in response to recommendations for Federal action by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission) in Addendum XV to Amendment 3 of the Commission's Interstate Fishery Management Plan for American Lobster (ISFMP). The intent of Addendum XV is to maintain a current level of trap fishing effort -- with 'current' being defined as during the development of the addendum in 2008 - in the Federal waters of Lobster Conservation Management Area 1 (Area 1) through a limited entry program for Federal lobster trap fishermen based on specific eligibility criteria. NMFS would implement these regulations according to its authority in the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act (ACFCMA)"--Executive summary.