Posted 06/25/2012
In response to critical comments from state agencies and legislators as well as the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, the National Marine Fisheries Service has postponed for six more months a decision on expanding critical habitat for the Hawaiian monk seal.
Since last November, five monk seals have been deliberately killed in the Main Hawaiian Islands, a development that some have attributed to fishermen being angry over a perceived constraint on their activities.
The entire population of Hawaiian monk seals hovers around the 1,000 mark, giving it the unfortunate status of one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals. The proposed rule would extend critical habitat from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands into the Main Hawaiian Islands, where the seals’ reproducing population has been increasing over the last decade and a half.
[Posted June 25, 2012]
The expanded critical habitat was first proposed to NMFS in 2008 in a petition from three environmental groups – Center for Biological Diversity; KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, and Ocean Conservancy – noting that since the mid-1990s, the monk seal was beginning to recolonize the Main Hawaiian Islands. In June 2009, the agency announced its intention to revise critical habitat, much along the lines proposed in the petition.
It took NMFS two years to come up with the proposed rule, published in June 2011. The deadline for comment was August 31, but in response to pressure, the agency on November 7 extended the comment period to January 6, agreeing to consider all comments received between August 31 and November 7 as timely received.
The Endangered Species Act usually requires that decisions on critical habitat be made within a year of the proposed rule. However, an exception is allowed “if there is substantial disagreement regarding the sufficiency or accuracy of available data.”
By extending the deadline to December 2, NMFS says in the Federal Register notice of June 25, the agency will be able to “further evaluate the data used by the state, as well as analyze information received from GPS-equipped cellular transmitter tags in the Main Hawaiian Islands. To ensure that the final rule is based solely on the best available scientific information, it is essential to resolve the substantial disagreement regarding the identification and analysis of the essential features which support the scope of the designation.”
“Although not a basis for the extension,” NMFS continues, “we will also use this period to further evaluate all comments received regarding the potential economic impacts of the proposed designation.”
For background and links to documents, see the NMFS website: http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/PRD/prd_critical_habitat.html
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