Transcript Protected Species Talk - for Dr. Jason P. Turner

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 1972
1. 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 - 1972
2. Endangered Species Act - 1973
3. CITES (the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora) - 1975
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 - 1972
2. Endangered Species Act - 1973
3. CITES (the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora) - 1975
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”
What is Endangered?
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
Who is listed?
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?
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 - 1972
2. Endangered Species Act - 1973
3. CITES (the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora) - 1975
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
http://www.iwcoffice.org/conservation/permits.htm
Scientific Whaling
Scientific Whaling
Scientific Whaling
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 2008 - 2012, 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 2008 2012 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
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
Techniques – Spring/Summer hunt
Seals basking on the ice in the spring sun
were stalked in a sealskin covered kayak
and killed with clubs
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
Commercial
Sealing
Seal killing for
commercial
purposes - 1515
Became more
prevalent in the
late 1700s
Seals began to be
exploited by
whalers
Modern Sealing
Why Modern Sealing?
Harp seals in Canada are culled due to their
hypothesized impact on cod stocks
250,000-350,000 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
250,000-350,000 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?
1969
Steller Sea Lion Rookery
1987
How Safe is Your
Dolphin?
Purse
Rate of incidentally caught dolphins in the
Pacific tuna purse seineSeining
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
Three methods of purse seining for
Seining
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
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 taxa
Log sets
School sets
Dolphin sets
Dolphins
6
11
4,521
Turtles
232
100
64
Billfishes
4,121
1,708
894
Sharks and rays
105,632
30,258
7,760
Large pelagic
fishes
2,611,312
202,159
2,608
Triggerfishes
1,735,960
11,714
1,474
Other fishes
2,651,856
169,842
73,414
1993-1996 total data N= 10,000 sets per
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 mammals
All sea turtles
Any Sharks
Any Billfishes
Relatively few:
plants
insects
other inverts
To Protect or not to Protect
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?
Why we protect?
Why we protect?
Why we protect?
Why we protect?
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
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?