A Loss for American Samoa: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court decision, effectively giving longline fishing vessels the right to fish as close as 12 miles from the territory’s coast. The decision is a blow to … Continued
The distinctive vocalizations of three Kaua‘i honeycreepers are disappearing. Once, and not that long ago, an ‘akeke‘e, or a Kaua‘i ‘amakihi, or an ‘anianiau could be identified by its song without setting eyes on the bird. Today, the calls of … Continued
Last month, Environment Hawai‘i reported on a new draft bat guidance document aimed at helping the state Endangered Species Recovery Committee (ESRC) make decisions regarding the Habitat Conservation Plans and Incidental Take Licenses that are required for wind farms to incidentally harm … Continued
Several million dollars have been spent over the past few years on research, habitat restoration, and land acquisition to mitigate the unexpectedly high number of endangered Hawaiian hoary bats being killed by wind farms across the state. Last month at … Continued
Where on O‘ahu are endangered Hawaiian hoary bats most active? According to an acoustic monitoring study launched in 2017, “by far and way, the bulk of activity is on northern part of the island,” said Joel Thompson of the Oregon-based … Continued
The Hawai‘i population of green sea turtles is federally listed as threatened and in 2018, Hurricane Walaka destroyed much of the turtles’ preferred nesting habitat in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). But according to T. Todd Jones of the Pacific Islands Fisheries … Continued
Recent reports by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) suggest that the pelagic population of false killer whales within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around Hawai‘i may be larger than was previously thought. Or it may be about … Continued
In late November, the Hawai‘i deep-set longline fleet, which targets bigeye tuna, caught three false killer whales in federal waters off the Big Island. All of them were release alive, but had been hooked in the mouth area and freed with … Continued
Can’t Cool Down: More than a decade ago at the Hawai‘i Conservation Conference, Stephen Miller of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Honolulu expressed his concern about the pace at which nighttime temperatures at high elevations were rising: … Continued
One of the terms and conditions in the shallow-set fishery BiOp requires NMFS to conduct a workshop with fishermen, observers, relevant experts and NMFS’ Protected Resources Division staff to “determine whether there are more effective methods for removing more fishing … Continued