Chapter III — Species of Special Concern 



officials. However, it also was concerned that the ad 

 hoc approach to interagency involvement was not 

 well-suited to keeping agencies and groups informed 

 of critical issues and activities, nor was it the best way 

 to elicit creative ideas on applying their respective 

 programs to help meet monk seal recovery needs. 

 The panel therefore recommended that the Service 

 establish an interagency implementation team, co- 

 chaired by representatives of the Service's monk seal 

 research staff and management staff to review prog- 

 ress and coordinate cooperative agency work. 



The Commission concurred with this recommenda- 

 tion and reiterated it in its letter of 4 August to the 

 Service. 



Tern Island — Tern Island at French Frigate 

 Shoals is largely an artificial island protected on three 

 sides by a sheet-metal bulkhead. Built by the Navy in 

 World War II for use as an airstrip, the island was 

 used by the Coast Guard as a LORAN station in the 

 1960s and 1970s and is now a Fish and Wildlife 

 Service field station for the Hawaiian Islands National 

 Wildlife Refuge. As the only airstrip between the 

 main Hawaiian Islands and Midway, the island is an 

 essential support base for wildlife research and 

 management. Among other things, it has enabled 

 rapid airlifts of seals for rehabilitation purposes. 



The airstrip and field station, however, are in 

 imminent danger of being lost because of the badly 

 deteriorated seawall protecting the island. To address 

 this threat, the Fish and Wildlife Service contracted 

 with the Army Corps of Engineers for a report 

 evaluating shore protection alternatives. The report 

 was completed in 1993 and, based on its results, the 

 Service again contracted with the Corps to prepare 

 construction plans for a new rock revetment. Corps 

 and Service officials advised the panel that the con- 

 struction plans would be completed by the end of 

 1995, but that funding to build the revetment had not 

 been included in either Administration or Congressio- 

 nal budgets for the Service. 



The panel noted that everything possible should be 

 done to maintain the airfield and field station and to 

 complete the planning efforts as soon as possible. It 

 also noted that if the bulkhead was allowed to fail, 

 erosion pockets behind the seawall and exposed debris 



now buried on the island would create entrapment 

 hazards for sea turtles and monk seals and the collapse 

 would itself require expensive demolition and clean-up 

 work. In view of the possible obligations of former 

 occupants who built and buried material that could 

 soon become wildlife hazards, the panel recommended 

 that the Service, in consultation with the Navy, the 

 Coast Guard, and the Corps, re-examine all possible 

 alternatives for stabilizing the island. 



The Commission shared the panel's concerns and 

 included the panel's recommendation in its 4 August 

 letter to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Commis- 

 sion also suggested that certain options, such as 

 involving the Navy Seabees and seeking donations of 

 construction materials, be considered as a possible 

 means of installing a new shore protection system. 



Kure Atoll — In 1960 the Coast Guard began 

 operating a LORAN navigation station on Kure Atoll. 

 During the first two decades of operation, mean beach 

 counts of seals declined from about 90 to less than 30 

 animals, apparently due to human disturbance of seal 

 haul-out beaches. Early in the 1980s the Coast Guard 

 significantly increased its efforts to reduce disturbance 

 on atoll beaches, and the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service began a head start program to protect pups 

 born there. In 1984 the Service also started to intro- 

 duce rehabilitated female pups from French Frigate 

 Shoals. Together the decline in seals was reduced and 

 by 1992, when the Coast Guard closed the station, 

 beach counts had increased slowly to about 40 ani- 

 mals. 



Upon closing the station in 1992 the Coast Guard 

 demolished many of its facilities and undertook 

 contaminant clean-up work, which was completed in 

 1993. Coast Guard officials advised the panel that 

 some beach sediments with elevated PCB levels had 

 inadvertently been left on the atoll and, in consultation 

 with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- 

 tration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the 

 State, it was therefore considering whether and what 

 further action may be needed. Although no analyses 

 for contaminants in seal tissues have been done, there 

 has been no evidence of effects on seal reproduction, 

 survival, or health. Noting that a field camp would 

 be established to monitor seals on Kure Atoll in 1995, 

 the panel recommended that the Service assist the 



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