NMFS Biological Opinion on U.S. Navy training ... - Govsupport.us

FINAL PROGRAMMATIC BIOLOGICAL OPINION ON U.S. NAVY ACTIVITIES IN THE HAWAII RANGE COMPLEX 2008-2013
eggs to survive. When combined with changes in coastal habitats and oceans currents, the future climates that are
forecast place sea turtles at substantially greater risk of extinction than they already face.
3.3 Introduction to this Status of Listed Species
The rest of this section of our <strong>Opinion</strong> consists of narratives for each of the threatened and endangered species that
occur in the action area and that may be adversely affected by the additional activities the U.S. Navy proposes to
undertake in the Hawai’i Range Complex from December 2008 to December 2013. In each narrative, we present a
summary of information on the distribution and population structure of each species to provides a foundation for the
exposure analyses that appear later in this <strong>Opinion</strong>. Then we summarize information on the threats to the species and
the species’ status given those threats to provide points of reference for the jeopardy determinations we make later in
this <strong>Opinion</strong>. That is, we rely on a species’ status and trend to determine whether or not an action’s direct or indirect
effects are likely to increase the species’ probability of becoming extinct.
After the Status subsection of each narrative, we present information on the diving and social behavior of the
different species because that behavior helps determine whether aerial and ship board surveys are likely to detect
each species. We also summarize information on the vocalizations and hearing of the different species because that
background information lays the foundation for our assessment of the how the different species are likely to respond
to sounds produced by detonations.
More detailed background information on the status of these species and critical habitat can be found in a number of
published documents including status reviews, recovery plans for the blue whale (<strong>NMFS</strong> 1998a), fin whales (2007),
fin and sei whale (<strong>NMFS</strong> 1998b, <strong>NMFS</strong> 2007), humpback whale (<strong>NMFS</strong> 1991a), right whale (<strong>NMFS</strong> 1991b), a status
report on large whales prepared by Perry et al. (1999), and recovery plans for sea turtles (<strong>NMFS</strong> and USFWS 1998a,
1998b, 1998c, 1998d, and 1998e). Richardson et al. (1995) and Tyack (2000) provide detailed analyses of the
functional aspects of cetacean communication and their responses to active sonar. Finally, Croll et al. (1999), NRC
(1994, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005), and Richardson et al. (1995) provide information on the potential and probable
effects of active sonar on the marine animals considered in this <strong>Opinion</strong>.
3.3.1 Blue whale
Distribution
Blue whales are found along the coastal shelves of North America and South America (Rice 1974; Donovan 1984;
Clarke 1980) in the North Pacific Ocean. In the North Pacific Ocean, blue whales occur in summer foraging areas in
the Chukchi Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, around the Aleutian Islands, and the Gulf of Alaska; in the eastern Pacific,
they occur south to California; in the western Pacific, they occur south to Japan. Blue whales in the eastern Pacific
winter from California south; in the western Pacific, they winter from the Sea of Japan, the East China and Yellow
Seas, and the Philippine Sea (Gambell 1985).
In the western north Atlantic Ocean, blue whales are found from the Arctic to at least the mid-latitude waters of the
North Atlantic (CeTAP 1982, Wenzel et al.1988, Yochem and Leatherwood 1985, Gagnon and Clark 1993). Blue
whales have been observed frequently off eastern Canada, particularly in waters off Newfoundland, during the
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