Report. Workshop on Research Needs for the Conservation and Management of Cetaceans in the Pacific Islands Region

More than 20 cetacean species are known to exist in the
Pacific Islands Region, which encompasses the U.S. Exclusive
Economic Zone, or EEZ (waters out to 370 km from shore) around
the entire Hawaiian Archipelago. Johnston Atoll. Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll. Baker and Howland Islands. Jarvis Island. American Samoa. Wake Island, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, totaling some 5.8 million km2 of ocean.
Many of the species present are poorly studied throughout their
range and virtually unstudied in large portions of the Pacific
Islands Region. NOAA Fisheries (National Marine Fisheries
Service. NMFS). a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce,
has lead-agency responsibility for cetaceans under the Marine
Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species
Act of 1973. Heretofore, the agency's Southwest Fisheries
Science Center (SWFSC) in La Jolla. California, and the NMFS
regional office in Long Beach. California, were responsible for
conducting management-related research and providing cetacean
stock assessments throughout all U.S. waters of the temperate
and tropical Pacific Ocean. Establishment of the Pacific
Islands Region within NMFS in April 2003 initiated the devolution of those responsibilities within the region to the Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO) and Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) in Honolulu. Hawaii. It was expected that the transition of the research component from SWFSC to PIFSC would be gradual and that collaborative work between the two centers would continue for a considerable time into the future.

Available online

Call Number: [EL]

Physical Description: 72 p.