Some environmental groups are urging the National Marine Fisheries Service to take action to reduce the killing of false killer whales by Hawaii-based longline fishing boats.

While catching ahi and other fish, the longline boats inadvertently hook false killer whales, a member of the dolphin family.

The groups said a National Marines Fisheries Service stock assessment report released last week shows false killer whales are being killed at a rate that will make them extinct in Hawaii fishing waters.

"The evidence is in, and the number of these beautiful animals dying from the longline fishery keeps going up," said Todd Steiner, a biologist and executive director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network. "At this rate we will lose Hawaiian false killer whales — another victim of unsustainable industrial longline fishing."

He added, "There is no excuse for inaction by NMFS."

False killer whales, weighing about 1,500 pounds, are usually found in groups of 10 to 20 around Hawaii and frequently hunt together.

The fisheries service has proposed listing as an endangered species the Hawaiian insular false killer whales, a group usually found within 22 nautical miles from shore and genetically different from pelagic or deep-ocean false killer whales.

The fisheries service estimates the population of the near-shore animals at between 110 and 170.

Steiner’s group and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Earthjustice, sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in June, saying the agency failed to complete a plan to protect false killer whales under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Michael Tosatto, the Pacific islands regional administrator for the fisheries service, said the agency is working toward developing a final plan.

Tosatto said the agency is reviewing the draft stock assessment report and requesting comments from the public, including environmentalists, the longline fishing industry and scientists.

Once the final plan is issued, Tosatto said, the goal would be to reduce the number of false killer whales eliminated by the Hawaii longline industry to nine in the first six months and to 0.9 per year within five years.

Environmental groups said the agency’s latest information shows the Hawaii-based longline fisheries are killing an average of over 13 false killer whales each year — four beyond the number for a sustainable population.

Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said the fisheries service was supposed to have adopted a plan by Dec. 16 to reduce the killing of false killer whales.

Henkin said a federal advisory committee, which includes environmentalists, wants the federal agency to adopt measures that would expand the no-fish area for longlines and change the hook used to catch ahi to reduce injury to false killer whales, which also take the ahi bait.

He said the committee is also calling for closing an area south of the Hawaiian Islands to longline fishing once the annual commercial removal limit has been reached for false killer whales.

Pelagic false killer whales are found usually 80 miles or more away from the Hawaiian Islands, federal officials said. According to environmental groups, a new estimate has the pelagic stock of false killer whales at 906 animals within the exclusive economic zone that extends 200 nautical miles from shore.