Chapter III — Species of Special Concern 



Not included are waters within three nautical miles of 

 the island of Kahoolawe. These waters are high-use 

 areas for humpback whales. 



Although the sanctuary was designated by an Act 

 of Congress, no comprehensive management plan, 

 implementing regulations, or draft environmental 

 impact statement was developed prior to the designa- 

 tion. The responsibility for developing these lies with 

 the Sanctuaries and Reserves Division. In 1994 and 

 1995 Commission staff met several times with person- 

 nel from the Division and the National Marine Fisher- 

 ies Service to discuss factors that should be considered 

 in designing the sanctuary's management program. 



As part of the process of preparing a draft environ- 

 mental impact statement and management plan, the 

 Division, in conjunction with the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, convened a workshop on 26-28 

 April 1995 to identify and establish priorities for 

 research and management activities. Prior to the 

 workshop, members of the Commission staff helped 

 identify the goals and structure of the workshop. A 

 Commission representative participated in the work- 

 shop, as did humpback whale researchers and repre- 

 sentatives of Federal, state, and local governments and 

 environmental groups. 



Subsequently the Division developed a draft 

 environmental impact statement and management plan 

 and announced their availability in a 15 September 

 1995 Federal Register notice. The Marine 

 Mammal Commission, in consultation with its Com- 

 mittee of Scientific Advisors, reviewed the document 

 and will provide comments early in 1996. 



In its letter the Commission will concur with the 

 conclusions regarding the proposed boundary and 

 recommend that the Division proceed with efforts to 

 designate and implement the preferred boundary 

 alternative. In addition, the Commission will concur 

 with the conclusions that management activities should 

 continue year-round, and research and education 

 programs would should provide a complementary 

 mixture of leadership and support. The Commission 

 will also agree that a sanctuary advisory council 

 should be established but will suggest that a separate 

 scientific review panel be established to review and 

 provide recommendations to the sanctuary manager on 



scientific issues and the sanctuary research program. 

 The Commission will point out that the results of the 

 research planning workshop convened by the Division 

 were not but should be considered in the draft envi- 

 ronmental impact statement. 



The Commission also will point out that the highly 

 endangered Hawaiian monk seal occurs within the 

 sanctuary boundary and will recommend that the Divi- 

 sion take the steps necessary to include this species as 

 a resource of national significance for special protec- 

 tion within the sanctuary. The Commission will 

 recommend further that the Division contact the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service about identifying 

 and implementing education programs designed to 

 inform the general public about where and when 

 hauled-out seals may be encountered, the legislation 

 and regulations that protect monk seals and the 

 consequences of violating them, and the appropriate 

 responses to take if monk seals are encountered. 



Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate 

 Program — As discussed in Chapter XI, the 

 Defense Department's Applied Research Projects 

 Agency provided funding in 1993 to the Scripps 

 Institution of Oceanography for a 30-month study to 

 determine whether travel times of low-frequency 

 sounds across ocean basins can be measured accurate- 

 ly and used to detect changes in ocean temperature 

 associated with global climate change. The effect, if 

 any, that the sound transmissions will have on hump- 

 back whales and other marine organisms is uncertain. 



During the 30-month pilot study, low-frequency 

 sound transmitters are to be installed and operated 

 periodically in the deep sound channel off Hawaii and 

 California. The California transmitter was installed 

 late in October. A series of transmissions were done 

 during the installations to test the transmitter. At 

 about the same time, a dead humpback whale was 

 observed near Stinson Beach, California, and two 

 additional humpback whale carcasses were seen 

 floating near the Farallon Islands. Although it was 

 suspected that the sound transmissions may have 

 caused or contributed to the deaths of the whales, 

 assessments of available information on the effects of 

 sounds on marine mammals, the estimated time of the 

 deaths relative to the time of the transmission, and the 

 distance the whales were from the sound source 



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