Dear All, Today the National Marine Fisheries Service published a regulation listing the Hawaiian insular false killer whale as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
The population is small (~150 animals), demographically isolated, range-limited to the main Hawaiian Islands, and threatened by numerous stressors including bycatch, overfishing, toxics, and noise. In its listing notice, NMFS concurred with the finding of its expert review team that the population stands at a high risk of functional extinction within 75 years. Among other things, the listing will require the agency to identify and protect the whales' critical habitat, to regulate activities that affect them, and to produce a recovery plan. The listing is available at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-11-28/pdf/2012-28766.pdf. We congratulate NMFS on its decision and look forward to helping in whatever ways we can as it works towards the population's recovery. Best to all, Michael Michael Jasny Senior Policy Analyst Director, Marine Mammal Protection Project Natural Resources Defense Council 4479 W. 5th Avenue Vancouver, BC V6R1S4 tel. 604-736-9386 mob. 310-560-5536 fax 310-434-2399 mja...@nrdc.org<mailto:mja...@nrdc.org>
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