Posted 09/18/2012
The National Marine Fisheries Service has announced it is accepting further public comment on a petition to list the Hawai`i insular population of false killer whales as a distinct population segment eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The petition was filed in 2009 by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which, in light of NMFS’ inaction, filed a federal lawsuit in May of this year to force the agency to issue a final determination.
Instead, NMFS is reopening comment in light of several new studies of false killer whales in the Main and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
According to Michael Jasny, a senior policy analyst with the NRDC, the new information “only confirms the need to list the insular population of false killer whales as endangered.” Jasny, in a phone interview with Environment Hawai`i, went on to say that the studies “provide further evidence that the whales are isolated from all other false killer whale populations. Less than 150 of the whales remain. It’s imperative that they receive the protection the Endangered Species Act affords.”
The comment period is short, lasting only from September 18 to October 3. And, according to Jasny, the comment period will have little effect on the litigation. “A settlement agreement has been filed with the court,” he said. “If approved, it would require NMFS to make a decision on the listing by December 11.”
Public comment will be accepted, NMFS says, only on the bearing that five recently published studies of false killer whales in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands may have on the listing decision.
For links to the studies as well as instructions on how to comment, see:
http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/PRD/prd_false_killer_whale.html
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