www.cascadiaresearch.org

• Main Author: Via Hand Delivery
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Bia; Killer Whale
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.434.1097; http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/CRC_Navy_HSST_FinalEIScomments.pdf

To whom it may concern, I am writing to comment on the Hawai‘i-Southern California Training and Testing Final EIS/OEIS (EIS/OEIS). My comments specifically relate to the need for mitigation areas for small resident populations of protected species of marine mammals around the main Hawaiian Islands (in particular off Hawai‘i Island), including the endangered main Hawaiian Islands insular false killer whale. Research around the island of Hawai‘i, funded primarily by the U.S. Navy and by the National Marine Fisheries Service and including Navy-funded research where I have been the principal investigator, has revealed the existence of small resident populations of a number of species of odontocete cetaceans, including two species of beaked whales that are known to be sensitive to mid-frequency active (MFA) sonar: Cuvier’s beaked whales and Blainville’s beaked whales (McSweeney et al. 2007; Baird et al. 2009, 2011a, 2013a; Schorr et al. 2009). Biologically important areas (BIAs) for these beaked whale species off the island of Hawai‘i have been identified through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Cetacean Mapping (CetMap) program 1. While the EIS/OEIS notes that most of the assessments in the CetMap BIA process use only “observational data available and did not use density or habitat models to determine the biologically important areas”, that is not true for the BIAs designated for beaked whales in Hawai‘i. I am the lead author of the document “Known Biologically Important Areas for Cetaceans Hawaii ” 1 and the BIAs for beaked whales are based on extensive satellite tagging data over multiple years for both species (e.g., Schorr et al. 2009; Baird et al. 2011a, 2013a), combined with long-term photo-identification data indicating the existence of small resident populations (McSweeney et al. 2007; Baird et al. 2009). Thus these BIAs are not subject to the same limitations as purely observational/survey data. These BIAs have been reviewed both within the NOAA CetMap program and by scientists ...