Tag: Critical Habitat

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Hawaiian monk seal recovery actions – PEIS scoping period extension

NOAA / PIRO [via Benn Levine, Environmental Resources Management (ERM), www.erm.com]

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO) is proposing to implement specific management actions and administer the associated research and enhancement program for Hawaiian monk seals in the Hawaiian Islands. Public comments were due by November 15, 2010. NMFS has decided to allow additional time for submission of public comments on this action (75 FR 69398-69399). The scoping period for the PEIS is extended to November 30, 2010. Written comments must be received or postmarked by November 30, 2010.

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Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Actions

NOAA Fisheries | Office of Protected Resources, 1 October 2010

On October 1, 2010, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Pacific Islands Regional Office provided public notice that it is preparing a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) to assess the impacts of implementing specific management actions and administering a research and enhancement program to improve survival of Hawaiian monk seals.

Please read our newsletter for more information regarding the PEIS process and how you can participate.

Full Story

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Pushing for the protections monk seals (and humans) need

Marti Townsend, KAHEA, 30 July 2010

Like a glove across the face, KAHEA and the Center for Biological Diversity sent a Notice of Intent to Sue yesterday warning federal regulators to expedite the critical habitat designation for Hawaiian monk seals… or else.  Critical habitat is the backbone of the Endangered Species Act.  It is the mechanism for shepherding species back from the verge of extinction. Over two years ago, we petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to expand the critical habitat designation for the highly endangered Hawaiian monk seal.  And NMFS agreed the seal needed more habitat to thrive. Yet, more than a year since they agreed with us, NMFS is not any closer to protecting vitally important nearshore areas and deepwater foraging grounds for the seal.

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Monachus Guardian published

Just published: the November 2009 issue of The Monachus Guardian, the biannual electronic journal focusing on the Mediterranean, Hawaiian and Caribbean monk seals. The site can be accessed at http://www.monachus-guardian.org.

This issue features news and articles by some 30 authors from 13 countries from across the range of the genus, from Hawaii to Mauritania, Turkey to Spain, Madeira to Greece.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE:

Guest Editorial: Monk seals and fisheries need attention, education and cooperation, by Trisha Kehaulani Watson.
International News: Quebec workshop builds Med-Pacific links, but will action ever follow?…

Hawaiian News: Short-lived freedom for KP2…

Mediterranean News: Greece: Orphaned, newborn monk seal rescued at Kefalonia… Madeira: Young seal chooses busy Funchal as home… Mauritania: Reaching the 50-pup mark at Cabo Blanco… Turkey: Monk seals monitored at Karaburun Peninsula…

Cover Story: Tracking Artemis: Making sense out of a young seal’s death, by Panagiotis Dendrinos & Emily Joseph.

In Focus I: Progressive re-colonization of monk seal resting and reproduction habitats as the result of strict protection, by Pablo Fernández de Larrinoa, Hamdi M’Barek, Moulaye Haye, Miguel Ángel Cedenilla, Mercedes Muñoz, Ana Maroto & Luis Mariano González.

In Focus II: Monk seal sightings in Italy move to the central Tyrrhenian sea, by Giulia Mo.

Perspectives I: Tackling the conflict between seals and fisheries in Greece: an end or a beginning? by Stella Adamantopoulou and Vangelis Paravas.

Perspectives II: Mallorca’s lone seal: the 2009 follow-up, by Antoni Font and Joan Mayol.

Letters to the Editor: Seals of Coincidence, by Professor Keith Ronald… and Mediterranean monk seal encounters – Dos and Don’ts, by Marianna Psaradellis…

Recent Publications.

The current and back issues of The Monachus Guardian are also available from the Monk Seal Library http://www.monachus-guardian.org/library.htm.

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Hawaii’s famous white sandy beaches ‘are shrinking’

Press Watch, Telegraph.co.uk, November 16, 2009

Hawaii’s famous white sandy beaches are shrinking, geologists have warned.

They said that more than 70 per cent of beaches on the island of Kauai are eroding while Oahu has already lost a quarter of its sandy shoreline.

The islands have been experiencing a steady historical climb in sea levels dating back to the 19th century but the problem is likely to get significantly worse in coming decades as global warming causes sea levels to rise more rapidly. […]

The vanishing sands could ultimately decimate Hawaii’s economy. Tourism is the largest employer, with visitors spending more than $11 billion (£6.6 billion) a year.

It will also mean many animals and plans losing important habitats, including the Hawaiian monk seal and green sea turtles. […]

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Endangered monk seals to have Critical Habitat on Main Hawaiian Islands

Press Watch — Environment News Service, June 11, 2009

A Hawaiian monk seal pulls out of the ocean and flops down at one end of Sandy Beach, on Oahu’s southeast shore, far from the surfers at the other end. […]

The half-ton marine mammal is one of only about 1,200 individuals still alive today. But new habitat protections that the federal government will declare Friday could bring endangered Hawaiian monk seals back from the brink.

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service will designate critical habitat for endangered Hawaiian monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands and expand criticial habitat that already exists in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

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