1998 Year of the Ocean 



Ocean Living Resources 



Fig. 2. Status of Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles in U.S. Waters 



Marine Mammals 



Increasing 

 N=23 



12% Stabte 

 N=24 

 , 13% 

 I Cfeclining 

 N=8 

 4% 



Insufficieni 



Data N=129 



71% 



Insufficient 



DataN=4 



40% 



Sea Turtles 



Source: NMFS 1996 



Increasing 



Declining 



N=2 



20% 



table N=2 

 20% 



Six species of sea turtles regularly occur in U.S. waters (Figure 2). All are listed as 

 endangered or threatened under the ESA. The Kemp's ridley sea turtle {Lepidochelys kempi), is 

 the most endangered species of sea turtle in U.S. waters. After precipitous declines in population 

 size, it is now showing signs of recovery. In 1947 an estimated 40,000 females nested in one day. 

 By 1 966, only 6,000 nests were documented, and the plummeting population continued to 

 decline to a low of 702 nests documented in 1985. Among the causes for the decline of this 

 species were the incidental capture of the species at sea and taking eggs and nesting females from 

 the primary nesting beach in Mexico. The Mexican government began full protection of the 

 nesting beach in 1966, and in 1978, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Mexico's Instituto 

 Nacional de la Pesca began a cooperative program to enhance the recovery of the Kemp's ridley 

 sea turtle. The National Marine Fisheries Service has provided funding in recent years to 

 maintain and enhance protection efforts on the nesting beach. In addition, NMFS required that 

 shrimp trawlers install turtle excluder devices in their nets by the early 1990s. As a result of 

 increased hatchling production and protection at sea, the turtle population is showing signs of 

 recovery. More than 2,200 Kemp's ridley nests were documented in 1997. Green sea turtle 

 populations also appear to be increasing in the U.S. Atlantic and in Hawaii, although there is 

 great concern about the increasing frequency of fibropapillioma disease in this species (NMFS 

 1996). 



As a result of human activities such as logging, dam building, overgrazing, mining, 

 urbanization, overfishing, poor hatchery policies, and natural events such as floods, drought and 

 El Nihos, Pacific salmonids are rapidly disappearing in California, Oregon and Washington. 

 Since 1990, five stocks have been listed as endangered and seven as threatened under the ESA.'' 



4 Endangered stocks are the Sacramento River winter run chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Snake River sockeye (O. 

 nerka), Umpqua River cutthroat trout (O. clarki darki). southern California steelhead {O. mykiss) and the upper Columbia River 

 steelhead (O. mykiss). There are two chinook stocks, two coho (O. kisiitch) stocks and three steelhead stocks listed as threatened. 



C-12 



