Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) is a federal provision to conserve and sustain the habitats that fish need to go through their life cycles. The United States Congress in 1996 added the EFH provision to the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976. Renamed the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act in 1996, the act is the federal law that governs marine (sea) fishery management in the United States.

The amended act required that fishery management plans include designations and descriptions of essential fish habitats. The plan is a document describing the strategy to reach management goals in a fishery, an area where fish breed and people catch them. The Magnuson-Stevens Act covers plans for waters located within the United States' exclusive economic zone. The zone extends offshore from the coastland for three to 200 miles.

The designation of EFH was necessary because the continuing loss of aquatic habitat...