Marine Protected Species: Serving warm, fuzzy, and cute since 1972 Dr. Jason Turner Department of Marine Science, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo

Marine Protected Species: Serving warm, fuzzy, and cute since Who are protected 2. Pertinent Legislation 3. U.S. vs. International Protection 4. History of Protection 5. Case studies/Future implications

Who are Marine Protected Species?

Who are U.S. Marine Protected Species? 1. All Marine Mammals Whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, walrus, manatees, sea otters, polar bears 2. Sea Turtles Green, Hawksbill, Leatherback, Loggerhead, Kemp’s Ridley, Olive Ridley

Who are U.S. Marine Protected Species? 3. Fishes - Salmon Coho, Sockeye, Chum, Chinook, Atlantic 4. Invertebrates Elkhorn & Staghorn Coral, White Abalone

Protected Species Legislation 1. Marine Mammal Protection Act Endangered Species Act CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)

Marine Mammal Protection Act Prohibits, with certain exceptions, the take of marine mammals in U.S. waters and by U.S. citizens on the high seas the importation of marine mammals and marine mammal products into the U.S. - Since 1972 Definitions Take: to harass, hunt, capture, or kill, or attempt to harass, hunt, capture or kill any marine mammal. Harassment: any act of pursuit, torment, or annoyance

Marine Mammal Protection Act All Marine Mammals within U.S. waters Whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, walrus, manatees, sea otters, polar bears What are U.S. waters?

Exclusive Economic Zone Law of the Sea treaty – established 200-mile-wide EEZs – granting coastal nations exclusive rights with respect to natural resources

Protected Species Legislation 1. Marine Mammal Protection Act Endangered Species Act CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)

Endangered Species Act Purpose: Recovery of endangered and threatened species USFWS (Fish & Wildlife) & NOAA (Fisheries) ID & Publish list of threatened or endangered spp Species given full legal protection = no “take” Federal gov’t prohibited harming species or habitat Recovery plan Includes “critical habitat”

Endangered is the classification provided to an animal or plant in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range Threatened is the classification provided to an animal or plant likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range Critical Habitat are "all areas essential to the conservation" of the target species; the original ESA of 1973 allowed the FWS and NOAA Fisheries to designate specific areas as protected "critical habitat" zones What is Endangered?

Who is listed?

How are they listed? A species can be listed in two ways: 1) FWS or NOAA Fisheries to take the initiative and directly list the species 2) Via individual or organizational petition which prompts FWS or NMFS to conduct a scientific review

Has the listing process changed?

Listings by year (under different administrations) Ford (47 listings, 15 per year) Carter (126 listings, 32 per year) Reagan (255 listings, 32 per year) George H. W. Bush (231 listings, 58 per year) Clinton (521 listings, 65 per year) George W. Bush (60 listings, 8 per year) as of 5/24/08) Recent administration has proposed more listing power to Agencies, reduced roles of citizens and independent scientists

Is there International Protection?

Protected Species Legislation 1. Marine Mammal Protection Act Endangered Species Act CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)

CITES CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between Governments Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival

CITES Works by subjecting international trade in specimens of selected species to certain controls All import, export, re-export and introduction from the sea of species covered by the Convention has to be authorized through a licensing system

IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) - an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation IUCN brings together 83 states, 108 government agencies, 766 Non-governmental organizations and 81 international organizations and about 10,000 experts and scientists from countries around the world

IUCN Mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable Since 1963 has produced the IUCN Red List - world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species

IUCN

IWC International Whaling Commission (IWC) - an international body set up (1946) to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry“ 1970’s - dominated by governments opposed to commercial whaling 1986 – Moratorium in commercial whaling for its members

Whale Wars “The Society's fight to eradicate Japanese whaling on the high seas — where international laws are interpreted by different countries and organizations in different ways —”

Whale Wars Sea Shephard says that Japan is “Violating an International Ban on Whaling” by conducting Scientific Whaling Japanese Whalers say they are legally whaling Who is Right?

Scientific Whaling Moratorium applies only to commercial whaling Whaling under the scientific-research and aboriginal-subsistence provisions of the IWC is still allowed in Norway, Iceland, Japan

Scientific Whaling Are Norway, Iceland & Japan getting a fair shake? Japan has issued scientific permits every year in recent years. In the current year, permits are for the JARPA II programme (850±10% Antarctic minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpback whales) and the JARPN II programme (340 minke, 50 Bryde's, 100 sei and 10 sperm whales) ARTICLE VIII, Para 2 “Any whales taken under these special permits shall so far as practicable be processed and the proceeds shall be dealt with in accordance with directions issued by the Government by which the permit was granted”

Scientific Whaling Which means… Under the IWC permits Japan is allowed to take certain whales and based upon Article VIII, Para 2 – are required to process whale that is taken with permit

Scientific Whaling

Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas stock of bowhead whales (taken by native people of Alaska and Chukotka) - A total of up to 280 bowhead whales can be landed in the period , with no more than 67 whales struck in any year (and up to 15 unused strikes may be carried over each year). Eastern North Pacific gray whales (taken by native people of Chukotka and Washington State ) - A total catch of 620 whales is allowed for the years with a maximum of 140 in any one year.

IWC Regulations Moratorium on Whaling (1986) Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary (1994) – 11.8 million sq mile sanctuary Scientific Whaling No “teeth”

To Protect or not to Protect Critical issues: Who we protect? How we protect? Why we protect?

Seals and Sealing

Native Americans & Native Canadians > 4,000 years Northwest Europe & Baltic Sea > 10,000 years

Seals and Sealing Seal coats prized for both their beauty & warmth Seal oil used as lamp fuel, lubricating and cooking oil, processing leather and jute, & constituent of soap Meat was an important source of protein, vitamin A and iron

Seals and Sealing Seals basking on the ice in the spring sun were stalked in a sealskin covered kayak and killed with clubs Techniques – Spring/Summer hunt Walrus baculum

Seals and Sealing Techniques – Winter hunt Standing at a seal's breathing hole waiting for hours for a seal to come up for air

Seals and Sealing Modern Native technique – harpoon replaced with rifle; kayak with motorboat

Seal killing for commercial purposes Became more prevalent in the late 1700s Seals began to be exploited by whalers Commercial Sealing

Modern Sealing

Harp seals in Canada are culled due to their hypothesized impact on cod stocks 250, ,000 harp seals are killed every year Harp seals do eat Atlantic cod, although 40 years of studies indicate that Atlantic cod is a minor constituent of their diet Why Modern Sealing?

Did harp seals cause the collapse of cod stocks in the late 1980s, early 1990s?...No. The scientific evidence indicates that stock collapse was caused by over-fishing Then why continue – what are we (they) doing with 250, ,000 seals

Why Modern Sealing? Three-year harp seal quota - 975,000 animals In 2006: 325,000 harp seals 10,000 hooded seals 10,400 grey seals 10,000 seals for Aboriginal hunting While many countries have banned the importation of seal products, the Canadian industry brought in about $16.5 million last year

What’s the Problem? Steller Sea Lion Rookery

How Safe is Your Dolphin?

Purse Seining Rate of incidentally caught dolphins in the Pacific tuna purse seine fishery in the 60’s and 70’s sparked the tuna-dolphin debate and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 However,  6 million dolphins killed since 1959 Marine Mammal Protection Act & Magnuson-Stevens

Purse Seining Three methods of purse seining for tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific: On Log, On School, On Dolphin Between the 1950’s and 1970’s, 100% of purse seiners in the Eastern Tropical Pacific utilized Dolphin sets Since that time, effort placed upon moving the fishery towards Log and School sets Marine Mammal Protection Act & Magnuson-Stevens

Purse Seining # 16 Utilizes a Floating Aggregation Device (FAD) Encircles All Encircles School Encircles School & Pod

Who’s Seining Who Although they are most detrimental to marine mammals, “Dolphin sets” overwhelmingly produces the least amount of bycatch and the greatest amount of large, adult tunas Bycatch taxaLog setsSchool setsDolphin sets Dolphins6114,521 Turtles Billfishes4,1211, Sharks and rays105,63230,2587,760 Large pelagic fishes 2,611,312202,1592,608 Triggerfishes1,735,96011,7141,474 Other fishes2,651,856169,84273, total data N= 10,000 sets per type

Hug This! The Problem: - easy to conduct, produce high bycatch numbers (tens of millions) and yield young (5-15 lb) tuna - difficult to conduct; require spotting schools independent of dolphin pods. Utilize juvenile tuna (10-25 lb) not yet associated with dolphins – focus upon adult (>70 lb) fish with little associated bycatch numbers

Hug This! : Possible paradigm shift from the conservation of a single species toward the protection of entire ecosystems/ trophic communities??? or

To Protect or not to Protect Why - Serving warm, cute, and fuzzy Protected:Not Protected: All marine mammalsAny Sharks All sea turtlesAny Billfishes Relatively few: plants insects other inverts

To Protect or not to Protect

How – Species, Ecosystem, Trophic role everything Sea turtles – protected because numbers were reduced by man’s influence When numbers rebound they would become de-listed

To Protect or not to Protect Would de-listing of sea turtles ever happen?

To Protect or not to Protect Would de-listing of sea turtles ever happen?

To Protect or not to Protect How: We list marine mammals because of their taxonomy, not their population status

To Protect or not to Protect If based upon population status, only a relative few marine mammals would be protected

Why we protect?

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Global Warming Threats? December 2006: USFWS proposes listing Polar Bears as “Threatened” due to melting pack ice 12 month study process Critical habitat issues Would not affect Native Alaskan subsistence hunting

What’s the Catch? On May 14, 2008, the United States Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act Did not designate critical habitat citing Alaskan Subsistence hunting, etc. Also – listing is based upon climate change

What’s the Catch? If we provide Critical Habitat to polar bears based upon climate change we are: 1) Formally acknowledging that we are a cause of global warming 2) Are responsible for reversing this trend (i.e. – changing emissions policy, etc)

Global Warming Threats?