Humpbacks no longer in danger, NOAA says

Calling now-thriving humpback whales a national success story, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials want to remove most of the species’ populations from the endangered species list, including the 10,000 believed to be breeding and birthing around the Hawaiian Islands.

While no longer enjoying endangered species protection, humpbacks would still be under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and local whales would be further protected by the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary that covers much of — but not all — Hawaii waters, NOAA officials said Monday.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act still makes it illegal to harm or harass a humpback, said Michael Tosatto, Pacific regional administrator for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

Following 90 days of public comments and hearings in the spring and summer, a year from now NOAA hopes to break up all of the world’s humpback whales into 14 different populations.

After being on the endangered species list for 35 years, Hawaii’s humpbacks, along with nine other humpback populations, would be removed.

Two populations in Central America and the western North Pacific would be upgraded to the threatened species list. Populations in the Arabian Sea and off northwest Africa would remain endangered.

“As long as nobody’s going out whaling, I think it’s fine,” said Paul Nachtigall, director of the University of Hawaii marine mammal research program at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and past president of the international Society for Marine Mammalogy. “It’s really the Marine Mammal Protection Act that’s the basic law that protects the animals, as well as seals, sea lions and dolphins. The Marine Mammal Protection act is not going to change at all.”

NOAA’s announcement follows a successful petition a year ago by the Hawaii Fishermen’s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition Inc., which wanted to have the 21,000 North Pacific humpbacks removed from the endangered species list. The state of Alaska filed a similar petition with NOAA.

David Henkin, an attorney with Earthjustice, which successfully sued the Navy to protect humpbacks from high-intensity sonar, said humpbacks still face threats from fishing lines and nets, collisions with ships and other man-made risks.

He said NOAA made Monday’s announcement in response to “various pressures on the agency to remove protection to allow commercial and government military activities to go forward.”

Under the Endangered Species Act, anyone who wants to conduct an activity that affects humpbacks would need to “go through a review proc­ess that’s distinct from the Marine Mammal Protection Act.”

To assume that the Marine Mammal Protection Act gives humpbacks the same protection as the Endangered Species Act is “just wrong,” Henkin said.

“They’re all different tools in the toolbox to make sure humpbacks are around for future generations,” Henkin said. “The American people and the people of Hawaii in particular want to make sure we do everything we can to make them adequately protected.”

Phil Fernandez, president of the Hawaii Fishermen’s Alliance, said his group challenged the humpbacks’ inclusion on the endangered species list to free up money and resources for species that are actually on the brink of disappearing.

Fernandez said he works to help Hawaiian monk seals and false killer whales. He also attends a lot of ocean resource management meetings where he senses “a level of frustration among the scientists about where money should be spent.”

Regarding his group’s challenge, he said, “We didn’t do it for fishermen. We did it for just doing the right thing, for marine resource management. Because the humpback whale is a high-profile animal, there’s a tendency for money to go to the high-profile animals because of pressure from the public. Less publicly aware animals, including some whales, need help. There’s recognition among the conservation community that this was something that was bound to happen because the (humpback) whales have recovered. All the science shows that.”

Hannah Bernard, president of the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, also called their recovery “a success story.”

But she expressed concern that getting off the endangered list will create “complacency” and lead to humpback problems later.

After the eastern North Pacific gray whale was taken off the endangered species list in 1994, little attention was paid to a subsequent beaching by emaciated gray whales, Bernard said.

If similar problems occur for humpbacks, Bernard said, “there won’t be a lot of resources that will be brought to bear.”

“The good news,” he said, “is that they’re now considered robust enough to not need the attention.”