Endangered Species Act. After review and comment by the 

 Commission, the Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Team, and other 

 concerned parties, the Service took no further action until 

 December 1984 when it issued a Supplemental Environmental 

 Impact Statement proposing that waters and beaches within the 

 10-fathom isobath surrounding certain islands and atolls in 

 the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands be designated as critical 

 habitat for the Hawaiian monk seal. 



By letter of 15 February 1985, the Commission provided 

 comments and recommendations to the Service on the Supple- 

 mental Environmental Impact Statement. In its letter, the 

 Commission recommended that the seaward boundary of 

 designated critical habitat be extended from the 10- to the 

 20-fathom isobath in order to protect areas believed to be 

 important to monk seals for feeding purposes. A similar 

 recommendation was provided to the Service by the Hawaiian 

 Monk Seal Recovery Team, which in December 19 8 4 reconfirmed 

 its conclusion that critical habitat should include waters 

 out to the 2 0-fathom isobath. 



Under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act, the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service has one year from the time 

 of a proposed rulemaking in which to announce a final 

 decision. As noted above, the Service's Supplemental 

 Environmental Impact Statement proposing to designate 

 Hawaiian monk seal critical habitat out to the 10-fathom 

 isobath was issued in December 1984. More than a year later, 

 final action on the matter had not been taken and, on 20 

 February 1986, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of two 

 environmental groups and two individuals in Hawaii seeking 

 action by the Service to designate critical habitat for the 

 monk seal out to the 20-fathom isobath. Subsequently, by 

 Federal Register notice of 30 April 1986, the Service 

 promulgated a final rule designating critical habitat for the 

 Hawaiian monk seal. The area designated included beach 

 areas, lagoon waters, and ocean waters out to a depth of 10 

 fathoms around certain islands and atolls in the Northwestern 

 Hawaiian Islands. The effective date of the rule was 30 May 

 1986. 



As noted, the Commission and others had recommended that 

 critical habitat be extended seaward to the 20-fathom 

 isobath. On 27 June 1986, the Service responded to the 

 Commission's 15 February 1985 letter recommending designation 

 of waters out to the 20-fathom isobath. In its response, 

 received by the Commission on 21 July, the Service set forth 

 its reasons for limiting critical habitat to waters within 

 the 10-fathom isobath. Among other things, the Service noted 

 that it had determined that the decision was consistent with 

 the definition of critical habitat and that there were no 



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