This action proposes to implement the Pacific Fishery Management Council's Amendment 28 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan, which would modify the Federal regulations to protect benthic habitats that are important to groundfish while balancing sustainable fishing practices for important stocks. These regulatory changes would apply in Federal waters off Washington, Oregon, and California, and would complement rules governing state waters. In doing so, this rulemaking would establish and revise essential fish habitat (EFH) conservation areas where the use of bottom trawl gear is prohibited based on the results of the periodic review of EFH, as required by the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, as well as re-open historically productive fishing grounds that were closed to bottom trawling in 2002 to support rebuilding of several overfished groundfish species. NMFS declared these overfished groundfish species rebuilt between 2015 and 2018, so the closures are no longer necessary.