Status Review of Hawaiian Insular False Killer Whales (Pseudorca Crassidens) Under the Endangered Species Act
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NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-PIFSC-22 August 2010 Status Review of Hawaiian Insular False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) under the Endangered Species Act Erin M. Oleson, Christofer H. Boggs, Karin A. Forney, M. Bradley Hanson, Donald R. Kobayashi, Barbara L. Taylor, Paul R. Wade, and Gina M. Ylitalo Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center National Marine Fisheries Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. Department of Commerce About this document The mission of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is to understand and predict changes in the Earth=s environment and to conserve and manage coastal and oceanic marine resources and habitats to help meet our Nation=s economic, social, and environmental needs. As a branch of NOAA, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) conducts or sponsors research and monitoring programs to improve the scientific basis for conservation and management decisions. NMFS strives to make information about the purpose, methods, and results of its scientific studies widely available. NMFS= Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) uses the NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS series to achieve timely dissemination of scientific and technical information that is of high quality but inappropriate for publication in the formal peer- reviewed literature. The contents are of broad scope, including technical workshop proceedings, large data compilations, status reports and reviews, lengthy scientific or statistical monographs, and more. NOAA Technical Memoranda published by the PIFSC, although informal, are subjected to extensive review and editing and reflect sound professional work. Accordingly, they may be referenced in the formal scientific and technical literature. A NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS issued by the PIFSC may be cited using the following format: Oleson, E. M., C. H. Boggs, K. A. Forney, M. B. Hanson, D. R. Kobayashi, B. L. Taylor, P. R. Wade, and G. M. Ylitalo. 2010. Status review of Hawaiian insular false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) under the Endangered Species Act. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo., NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC-22, 140 p. + Appendices. __________________________ For further information direct inquiries to Chief, Scientific Information Services Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center National Marine Fisheries Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. Department of Commerce 2570 Dole Street Honolulu, Hawaii 96822-2396 Phone: 808-983-5386 Fax: 808-983-2902 ___________________________________________________________ Cover: Photograph taken by Aliza Milett, PIFSC. Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center National Marine Fisheries Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. Department of Commerce Status Review of Hawaiian Insular False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) under the Endangered Species Act Erin M. Oleson1, Christofer H. Boggs1, Karin A. Forney2, M. Bradley Hanson3, Donald R. Kobayashi1, Barbara L. Taylor2, Paul R. Wade4, and Gina M. Ylitalo3 1Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center National Marine Fisheries Service 2570 Dole Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822-2396 2Southwest Fisheries Science Center 3333 North Torrey Pines Court La Jolla, California 92037 3Northwest Fisheries Science Center 2725 Montlake Boulevard East Seattle, Washington 98112 4Alaska Fisheries Science Center 7600 Sand Point Way Northeast Seattle, Washington 98115 NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-PIFSC-22 August 2010 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background On October 1, 2009, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) received a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council requesting that Hawaiian insular false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) be listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and that NMFS designate a critical habitat for these whales. NMFS reviewed the petition, decided that the petition presented substantial scientific information indicating that an ESA listing may be warranted as evidenced by the small population size and recent population decline, and committed to conducting an ESA status review of Hawaiian insular false killer whales. NMFS formed a Biological Review Team (BRT) made up of scientists with diverse backgrounds to conduct the status review. The BRT considered a variety of scientific and technical information. This document reports the results of its comprehensive ESA status review of the Hawaiian insular false killer whale. Approach of the BRT The BRT acknowledged that there is considerable uncertainty surrounding all aspects of the Hawaiian insular false killer whale’s biology, abundance, trends in abundance and threats. Such uncertainties are expected for a naturally uncommon species that is primarily found in the open ocean where research is expensive and knowledge is consequently poor. The team decided to treat the uncertainty explicitly by defining where it exists and using a point system to weigh various plausible scenarios, taking into account all available data on false killer whales but also considering information on other similar toothed whales. The team’s objectives in taking this approach were to make the process of arriving at conclusions as transparent as possible and to provide assurance that the team was basing its decisions on a common understanding of the evidence. Details are given in Appendix A. DPS Designation and Risk Assessment Scores. Status of Hawaiian Insular False Killer Whales Hawaiian insular false killer whales are genetically distinguishable from pelagic false killer whales based on significant differences in both mitochondrial (mt) and nuclear DNA (Chivers et al., 2007, 2010). The mtDNA and nuclear DNA data show a strong differentiation of Hawaiian insular false killer whales at other spatial scales, including when they are compared at a broad scale with whales in the central North Pacific and eastern North Pacific, and at a finer scale with pelagic whales in Hawaiian waters and with whales in Mexico, Panama, and American Samoa (all comparisons to Hawaiian insular false killer whales have p-values < 0.001). The presence of two unique, closely related haplotypes in the Hawaiian insular population is consistent with little to no immigration from other areas. The pattern of primarily closely related haplotypes shown in Hawaiian insular false killer whales is consistent with a social system that excludes immigrants or a habitat specialization that makes survival of immigrants unlikely (or iii both). The magnitude of differentiation for nDNA is somewhat less than for mtDNA, which could suggest small amounts of male mediated gene flow, but there are alternate reasons for the difference that are also possible. The range of Hawaiian insular false killer whales may be assessed from a number of data sources, including ship and aerial survey sightings, and satellite tag telemetry. The location data from satellite telemetry indicate that individual insular false killer whales move widely and quickly among the main Hawaiian Islands and use waters up to 112 km from shore (Baird et al., 2010; Forney et al., 2010). Wide movement among the main Hawaiian Islands is also shown by re-sightings of photographically identified individuals over several years (Baird et al., 2005; Baird et al., 2008a; Baird, 2009). Tagged individuals were tracked over a broad range of depths, from shallow (< 50 m) to very deep (> 4000 m), with similar water depths and types of habitat used on both the windward and leeward sides of all islands (Baird et al., 2010). Hawaiian insular false killer whales share a portion of their range with the genetically distinct pelagic population of false killer whales (Forney et al., 2010). Satellite telemetry locations of a single tagged individual from the pelagic population, as well as sightings from ship and small boat surveys suggest that the distribution of the insular and pelagic populations overlap in the area between about 42 km and 112 km from shore. The 2009 Stock Assessment Report for Hawaiian insular false killer whales (Carretta et al., 2010) gives the current best-estimate of population size as 123 individuals (CV = 0.72), citing Baird et al. (2005). Recent reanalysis of photographic data has yielded two new estimates of population size for the 2006–2009 period. Two estimates are presented because two groups photographed near Kauai have not (perhaps yet) been observed to associate into the social network of false killer whales seen at the other islands. These animals may come from the pelagic population, may come from another undocumented population in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, or may represent a portion of the insular population that has not been previously documented photographically. The current best estimates of population size are 151 individuals (CV = 0.20) without the animals photographed at Kauai or 170 individuals (CV = 0.21) with them. Genetic data were used to estimate effective population size, which reflects the size of an idealized population that would experience genetic drift in the same way as the actual (census) population. Effective population size relates to inbreeding coefficients and an effective size of 50 is used as a rule of thumb below which inbreeding depression becomes likely. The estimate for the effective population size of Hawaiian insular false killer whales is 45.8 individuals (95% CI 32.4–69.4) (Chivers et al., 2010). Aerial survey sightings noted since 1989 suggest that the insular population of Hawaiian false killer whales has declined over the last two decades. A survey