HONOLULU — The federal government Monday proposed removing most of the world’s humpback whales from the endangered species list, saying the massive mammals have rebounded after 45 years of protection and restoration efforts. ADVERTISING HONOLULU — The federal government Monday
HONOLULU — The federal government Monday proposed removing most of the world’s humpback whales from the endangered species list, saying the massive mammals have rebounded after 45 years of protection and restoration efforts.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries officials want to reclassify humpbacks into 14 distinct populations, and remove 10 of those from the list. The last time NOAA removed a species from the endangered list because of its recovery was in 1994, when it delisted the eastern North Pacific population of gray whales.
Approval of the proposal would not mean there will be an open hunting season on humpbacks.
All the whales remain protected under the Marine Mammals Protection Act, and the United States still is an active member of the International Whaling Commission, which banned commercial whaling in 1966, said Angela Somma, chief of NOAA Fisheries endangered species division.
According to the International Whaling Commission’s website, there are only a few places in the world that still allow hunting of humpback whales, and that is for aboriginal subsistence only. Three nations, Japan, Norway and Iceland, still allow the animals to be killed for scientific research.
Humans hunted the whales in much higher numbers before their listing as endangered. Humpbacks were listed as endangered in 1970, four years after the International Whaling Commission banned commercial humpback whaling. The commission put a stop to all commercial whaling in 1986.
Among those recommended for delisting is the population that migrates each year from Hawaii to Alaska.
NOAA officials said decisions on which whale groups to recommend were based on many factors, including the risks they face. The single largest threat to humpbacks is fishing activities that result in the whales becoming tangled in fishing gear and drowning.
Donna Weiting, NOAA’s director for the Office of Protected Resources, said the most important considerations in determining if populations will remain on the list are their size and growth rates.
Some populations are growing at a rate of up to 11 percent annually, which requires federal approval for federally funded or authorized activities that could harm whales or their habitat.
Last year, the state of Alaska filed a petition to remove some North Pacific humpback whales from protection under the Endangered Species Act.
That population feeds in Alaska in the summer and breeds in Hawaii in winter.
The public has 90 days to comment on the recommended changes.
