In this August 25, 2012 photo, boaters watch a humpback whale breach off the coast of Gloucester, Mass.
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Today’s action comes in response to petitions by the Hawaii Fishermen’s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition to delist the North Pacific humpback whale and the state of Alaska to remove the Central North Pacific (Hawaii) stock of humpback from the list of endangered and threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
The Fisheries Service proposed removing most of the world’s humpback whales from the endangered species list past year, but all the mammals are still protected in USA waters.
Last year, it proposed removing most of the world’s humpback whales from the endangered species list.
The US Marine Mammal Protection Act that protects marine mammals within US waters still applies to all humpback whales, regardless of endangered status.
It said populations of the animals had steadily grown since the worldwide community banned commercial whaling almost 50 years ago.
While the government acknowledges that threats remain for humpback whales, it cites some populations’ increases to justify delisting. The decision downlists the Mexico population (that feeds off California, Oregon and Alaska) to threatened, although the Fisheries Service says current protections will be kept in place because of the increasing number of West Coast whale entanglements. Meanwhile, one group of whales that spend its summers off Alaska’s coast will be listed as threatened, the category below endangered in terms of the challenges to survival faced by a species. They are being taken off the list.
“Today’s news is a true ecological success story”, said Eileen Sobeck, assistant administrator for fisheries for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Humpback whales that frequent California, the Pacific Northwest, Mexico and Central America will continue to receive Endangered Species Act protections. There are about 3,200 of the whales in this group, which is only about half of what scientists previously thought, Nammack said.
The National Marine Fisheries Service said Tuesday humpback whales that breed in Hawaii waters in the winter are being taken off the list. These whales, called the Western North Pacific population, are endangered. It also faces threats from energy exploration and development, whaling and fishing gear entanglements.
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Humpback whales are also found along eastern coasts of the US and Canada. These whales, which winter in the West Indies, are not being listed as endangered. The animals live in small, isolated groups of as few as 10 pandas that struggle to reproduce and face the risk of disappearing altogether, the agency said.
