{"id":7148,"date":"2015-01-30T23:10:37","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T23:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/?p=7148"},"modified":"2015-01-30T23:10:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T23:10:37","slug":"meanwhile-wespac-longliners-assail-report-on-false-killer-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=7148","title":{"rendered":"Meanwhile, Wespac, Longliners Assail Report on False Killer Whales"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted<\/strong> 05\/21\/2012\u00a0<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\"2012JUN13_D17_RWB_0037_cropresize\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just days before the NRDC lawsuit, NMFS released its most recent stock assessment reports (SARs) for marine mammals, including those in the Pacific that interact with Hawai`i-based fisheries. At the same time, it responded to the several comments that had been received on the draft SARs published last year.<\/p>\n

Most of the comments on the report\u2019s discussion of marine mammals in Hawai`i addressed false killer whales, for which NMFS had prepared a new assessment. (The agency is required to conduct annual updates for so-called \u201cstrategic\u201d stocks \u2013 i.e., those stocks where the numbers of individuals removed by fishing exceed the level that can be removed without damaging the likelihood of long-term stock survival.) Both the insular and pelagic populations of false killer whales around Hawai`i continue to be designated as strategic stocks.<\/p>\n

Comments from the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Hawai`i Longline Association were harsh \u2013 but did not result in any changes to NMFS\u2019 assessment.<\/p>\n

Kitty Simonds, Wespac executive director, criticized the assessment for its allegations of a decline in the Hawaiian insular stock of false killer whales. This, she claimed, was \u201cinconsistent with NMFS\u2019s own best population estimate of the stock over the last decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, NMFS noted that \u201cthe Population Viability Analysis conducted by the Biological Review Team assessed all data sources, including those available from the 1990s aerial surveys, and derived the 9 percent average decline in a statistically robust analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simonds and the HLA also complained that a November 2011 report prepared for the Pacific Scientific Review Group (SRG) found that the pelagic population of false killer whales around Hawai`i is much greater than previous estimates suggested.<\/p>\n

But that November 2011 report, NMFS noted, was not available when the draft SAR was prepared and, in any case, the data used in that later report are still preliminary. \u201cAs a result,\u201d NMFS wrote in response to the comment, \u201cit is inappropriate to use interim results that NMFS and the SRG feel inadequately represent the uncertainty inherent in the data sets that underestimate uncertainty and overestimate the minimum abundance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A copy of that report was attached to the HLA\u2019s comment letter. The cover page indicates that it is intended only for review by the SRG: the warning \u201cDO NOT CITE\u201d is printed clearly above the title.<\/p>\n

Robin Baird of the Cascadia Research Collective, which has done extensive research on populations of false killer whales around the Hawaiian islands, noted that the draft assessment did not take account of elevated levels of PCBs in tissue samples taken from the animals. Also, Baird wrote, the draft assessment failed to mention declines in biomass of prey species. In response, NMFS added language to the final assessment \u201cacknowledging the potential impacts of reductions in biomass of some prey species.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timothy Ragen, executive director of the Marine Mammal Commission, noted that in Hawai`i, \u201cFrom 2005 to 2008, the estimated bycatch outside U.S. waters ranged from 0 to 8 whales per year\u2026 However, in 2009 the estimate \u2026 spiked to 37 animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis large increase,\u201d Ragen continued, \u201csuggests that U.S. bycatch outside the zone may be much higher and more uncertain than previously thought. Longline vessels from other nations operating in the same areas are also likely to take pelagic false killer whales, adding to pressure on the stock and uncertainty about its status.\u201d NMFS responded that it is preparing a comprehensive international action plan for marine mammal conservation, which will likely be released mid-year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted 05\/21\/2012  Just days before the NRDC lawsuit, NMFS released its most recent stock assessment reports (SARs) for marine mammals, including those in the Pacific that interact with Hawai`i-based fisheries. At the same time, it responded to the several comments … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[351,26,8],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-7148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eh-xtra","category-endangered-species","category-fisheries","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}