MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1995 



approve a request by the Fish and Wildlife Service for 

 ownership and use of Midway as a national wildlife 

 refuge. 



Both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the 

 Navy responded to the Commission early in 1995. 

 On 23 January 1995 the Service wrote, noting that it 

 agreed with the Commission on the need for an 

 interagency program review and for strengthening the 

 monk seal program. It advised that steps were being 

 taken to increase program funding in 1995, that it was 

 committed to expanding monk seal rehabilitation 

 facilities to handle more animals, that field camps 

 would be established on all major breeding islands in 

 1995, and that it had begun working with the Navy on 

 cooperative efforts to rebuild the monk seal breeding 

 colony on Midway. 



On 3 March 1995 the Navy wrote to the Commis- 

 sion noting that it shared concern about the need for 

 restoring monk seals throughout their range. In 

 addition to steps it had taken to comply with require- 

 ments of the Endangered Species Act, the Navy noted 

 it was working with the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service on a proposal to fund monk seal work at 

 Midway in 1996 under the Department of Defense 

 Legacy Program, which is designed to help meet 

 environmental and cultural needs at Defense Depart- 

 ment installations. While 1996 funding for the 

 program was uncertain, the Navy expressed hope that 

 funds would be available from this source for monk 

 seal work. It also noted that regulations governing 

 the disposal of excess property would allow it to 

 transfer land to other Federal agencies, and that the 

 Fish and Wildlife Service, the only Federal agency 

 asking for title to Midway, was taking steps to pre- 

 pare for the transfer. 



The transfer of Midway to the Service, however, 

 was placed in doubt by a bill, H.R. 602, introduced 

 in Congress early in 1995. In part, the bill proposed 

 transferring jurisdiction of Midway and certain other 

 remote Pacific islands to the State of Hawaii. In 

 response, state officials began evaluating a range of 

 options for Midway, including development and use 

 that would impact monk seals and other wildlife. 

 Later in 1995 a second bill was introduced proposing 

 transfer of Midway to a foundation interested in 

 developing the atoll as a national historic park. While 



these bills were not considered in 1995, Congressional 

 action on pending or new bills to transfer Midway to 

 an entity other than the Service is still possible. 



The 1995 Hawaiian Monk Seal 

 Program Review 



On 11-13 April 1995 the Marine Mammal Com- 

 mission convened a panel of marine mammal scientists 

 and resource managers to review the Hawaiian monk 

 seal recovery program. Organized with the assistance 

 of the National Marine Fisheries Service's Honolulu 

 Laboratory, the review was held in Honolulu. Partici- 

 pants included officials from the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, the Navy, the Coast Guard, the Western 

 Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, the 

 Army Corps of Engineers, the Hawaii Division of 

 Forestry and Wildlife, the Hawaiian Monk Seal 

 Recovery Team, the academic community, and Sea 

 Life Park, as well as the Commission and the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service. Relevant activities and 

 plans were described by agency representatives, and 

 discussions permitted a thorough, productive review 

 of recovery issues and agency activities. 



After the review the panel summarized its findings 

 and recommendations and provided them to the 

 Commission. In separate letters sent on 4 August 

 1995, the Commission, in consultation with its Com- 

 mittee of Scientific Advisors, forwarded its comments 

 and recommendations based on the panel's findings to 

 the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, the Navy, and the Coast Guard. 

 The results of the review are summarized below. 



Program Funding and Personnel — For the past 

 15 years, support for monk seal research and manage- 

 ment has been insufficient to carry out all priority 

 work identified in program planning documents and 

 recommended by the Commission and the Recovery 

 Team. To address this problem, review participants 

 from the National Marine Fisheries Service advised 

 the panel that it was taking steps to increase program 

 funding to $1,094,000 in 1995 (about twice the base 

 funding level in the Service's Fiscal Year 1994 

 budget) and to increase ship support for program 

 work. They also noted that additional funds would be 

 used, in part, to (a) hire field crews for work previ- 



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