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"This rule exemplifies a conservative approach to fishery management," said NMFS Director Bill Hogarth.

Most areas trawled intensively in the Aleutians in prior years will remain open, but other spots containing unique coral gardens that may provide important habitat for rockfish will be off-limits.

Hogarth said that the best available data indicate Alaska trawl fisheries had "no more than a minimal adverse impact on seafloor habitats," but some environmentalists disagree with his conclusion.

"This was the heart of the debate," said Jim Ayers, Pacific regional vice president for Oceana, an environmental group that had gathered agency data and lobbied for the closures. Oceana found cases in which 10 tons of coral and sponge habitat had been displaced by a single trawl, Ayers said.

Oceana and other environmental groups worked to rally public interest in protecting Aleutian corals, after they were discovered in 2002. Roughly 33,000 groups and individuals provided their comments to the Fisheries Service on an environmental study to evaluate the effects of fishing on essential fish habitat in the North Pacific.

The Fisheries Service also has recently designated more than 135,000 square miles of seafloor off California, Oregon and Washington for closure to all bottom-contact fishing.

Other areas designated for closure - primarily to protect rockfish and unique corals - include 10 locations in the Gulf of Alaska, five small areas in Southeast Alaska, and 15 locations offshore to protect seamounts.

The North Pacific council also is beginning to consider additional closures in the Bering Sea.