protection for Hawaiian monk seals and other endangered 

 species. The Commission further noted that additional 

 information on the nature and magnitude of interactions 

 between endangered species and the fishery must be developed 

 in order to afford adequate protection and to assure that 

 fishing activities will be consistent with the intents of the 

 Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. 

 Therefore, the Commission recommended that: (a) the Western 

 Pacific Bottomfish Fishery Management Plan be amended, or a 

 supplemental statement be added, to identify the need for a 

 research and monitoring program on interactions between the 

 fishery and Hawaiian monk seals and other protected species; 

 and (b) the Service take steps necessary to design and 

 implement an experimental fishing program to supplement and 

 verify data received from fishermen as a result of a 

 reporting requirement recommended in its Biological Opinion 

 on the Plan. At the end of 1986, the Commission had not 

 received a response to its 24 July letter. 



The urgent need for continued and additional action to 

 protect and encourage the recovery of the Hawaiian monk seal 

 is obvious. As noted above, despite efforts to date, the 

 monk seal population is in grave danger of extinction. Of 

 its two congeners, the Caribbean monk seal may already be 

 extinct and the Mediterranean monk seal, now scattered in 

 small, isolated groups covering only a fraction of its 

 historic range, is probably the most endangered pinniped in 

 the world. Thus, without sustained, vigorous efforts by 

 responsible Federal and State agencies, the public, and the 

 fishing industry, one of only two genera of seals whose range 

 is limited to the tropical environment may soon disappear. 

 To lose such a species becomes even more inexcusable when one 

 considers that it occurs entirely within the waters of one 

 country, the United States, and should therefore be a more 

 easily protected species than the Mediterranean monk seal, 

 for example, whose range includes many countries. 



While considerable effort has been made over the past 

 few years to encourage recovery of the Hawaiian monk seal, 

 the Commission is concerned that a number of critical 

 management needs are being neglected. As is evident from 

 preceding discussions, several major issues remain 

 unresolved. These include: re-activation of the Hawaiian 

 Monk Seal Recovery Team, which has not met since 1984; 

 designation of critical habitat in areas essential to the 

 species' suirvival; the future of the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service's field station on Tern Island; and the management of 

 fisheries in and adjacent to essential Hawaiian monk seal 

 habitat. 



Other problems also have arisen or continue to thwart 

 recovery of the monk seal population. For example, certain 



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