Feds agree to regular counts of threatened marine mammals

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — The federal government must provide newly updated assessments of certain subspecies of threatened marine mammals under the terms of a settlement announced Monday in federal court.

The settlement is a win for the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network, which sued the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claiming the service had failed to update expired population assessments for nine subspecies of sea otters, polar bears, manatees and walruses. Many of the subspecies are in the “strategic” category under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which holds that certain levels of human-caused death could threaten the group’s survival.

In response, the Biden administration on Monday agreed to release population reports for manatees in Florida and Puerto Rico and sea otters and walruses in Alaska, as required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Emily Jeffers, an attorney at the center, called the outcome “a good first step.” 

“These documents will help us understand the threats facing manatees, otters and walruses, but they’re also important for setting limits on activities that can harm them. This will help support strong federal action to shield these animals from pollution, climate change and other hazards that are getting more and more deadly.”

According to the center, the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires Fish and Wildlife to prepare stock assessment reports for all marine mammals under its jurisdiction, including sea otters, walruses and manatees. 

“Despite this clear directive, the agency had not updated stock assessments for years, and some haven’t been updated in more than a decade,” Jeffers said in a statement.

The agency published stock assessments for polar bears and southern sea otters after the lawsuit was filed in February 2021. These assessments showed that the Beaufort Sea polar bear population had plummeted to only 780 bears.

According to the lawsuit, the assessments analyzing increasing threats to certain species subgroups are long overdue. The last assessment published in 2016 by the Department of the Interior’s Wetland and Aquatic Research Center shows that West Indian manatees which swim in shallow waters near the shore are at higher risk for exposure to anthropogenic influences, including metals. Two West Indian subgroups of manatees are threatened by watercraft collisions, with at least 637 manatees killed in Florida waters in 2020. More than 1,100 manatees — more than 10% of the Florida manatee population — died in 2021, many due to pollution of their habitat and seagrass food sources. The service has not updated manatee stock assessments since 2014.

Federal officials have also found climate change will destroy the sea-ice habitat which Pacific Ocean walruses depend on for nourishment, likely causing a substantial population decline. But the service has not updated a stock assessment for the species in more than seven years.

“The plight of these species highlights the problems with outdated stock assessments,” said Scott Artis, managing director of Turtle Island Restoration Network, in the statement. “Good management requires good information, and assuring a current, science-based population analyses is critical to the protection of marine mammals so they can survive and recover.”

The environmental groups were represented by Jeffers and Miyoko Sakashita, also an attorney at the center.

The Department of Justice was presented by attorney Taylor Mayhall, who was not available for comment. Justice Department spokesperson Wyn Hornbuckle did not respond to requests for comment.

The stock assessment reports are designed to analyze threats and levels of human-caused serious injury and mortality to marine mammals. The new assessments must be completed by 2023, starting with assessments of the manatee populations in Florida and Puerto Rico due by July 29.

Follow @nhanson_reports

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