Environment / The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has failed to take protective measures for 14 marine mammal populations that, by law, it is required to protect. Among them are Hawaii false killer whales, the Central North Pacific stock of humpback whales and the Hawaii stocks of sperm whales and bottlenose dolphins.

Nothing has been done for the false killer whale due to a lack of funding, NMFS told the GAO. “According to the most recently available information, the false killer whale is the only marine mammal for which incidental take by commercial fisheries is known to be above its maximum removal level that is not covered by a take-reduction team,” the GAO found. Lack of funds was also given as the reason for failing to establish a take-reduction team for the Central North Pacific stock of humpback whales; “however, because its population size is increasing,” the GAO wrote, “NMFS officials consider the stock to be a lower priority for establishing a team than stocks with declining populations.”

The Hawaii stock of sperm whales is also not a high priority for NMFS officials, who told GAO that interactions of the longline fishery with sperm whales account for little or no incidental take.

The GAO reports instances “where fishery-related mortality estimates were missing important information. For example, NMFS scientists identified spinner and bottlenose dolphins in Hawaii as non-strategic”—the level of harm from the fishery was not enough to warrant action by NMFS—“but raised concerns about these decisions because the estimates of fishery-related mortality for the stocks were likely to be incomplete…. While the agency has observer program data showing that incidental take from a longline fishery was below the maximum removal level, it did not have observer programs in gillnet fisheries that were also likely to incidentally take the stocks, and therefore might have increased the fishery-related mortality estimate if these fisheries had been observed.”

In 2003, attorneys from the Honolulu office of Earthjustice sued NMFS, on behalf of Hui Malama i Kohola, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Turtle Island Restoration Network, seeking to force the agency to reclassify the Hawaii longline fishery from Category III (having “a remote likelihood of or no known incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals”) to Category I (a fishery having “frequent incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals”), based on threats to false killer whales. A year later, NMFS changed the Hawaii longline fishery’s classification to Category I. When that occurred, NMFS should have convened a take-reduction team and prepared a take-reduction plan for Hawaii’s false killer whales. But that has not yet happened.

“For years, NMFS has illegally ignored its own data, which show that the Hawaii-based longline fleet is injuring and killing false killer whales at over twice the level the population can sustain,” said Earthjustice attorney David Henkin. “Hawaii’s marine mammals are paying with their lives for NMFS’ refusal to comply with the law.

“This new GAO report confirms NMFS never took seriously its responsibility to reduce the killing of marine mammals caused by industrial fishing gear. Earthjustice and our clients are currently investigating ways to compel NMFS to heed Congress’s command to protect Hawaii’s false killer whales and other marine mammals from needless death and injury.”

According to the Cascadia Research Collective, the population of false killer whales in the insular waters of Hawaii is distinct from that of the offshore population—and is in serious decline. The organization now estimates the insular population numbers around 120, one-fourth of the estimated population just 20 years ago.

For more, see [cascadiaresearch.org]. The GAO report is available online: [gao.gov]

This article originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of Environment Hawaii, an independent newsletter (online at [environment-hawaii.org]). Reprinted with permission.

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