The public has until July 21 to comment on the National Marine Fisheries Service scientific status review and draft management report on 82 species of coral under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
Seven of those coral species are in the Caribbean and the rest in the Pacific, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration press release. The Marine Fisheries Service is an arm of NOAA.
Those seven species are Agaricia lamarcki, commonly called lamarck’s sheet coral;Dendrogyra cylindrus or pillar coral; Dichocoenia stokesi or elliptical star coral; Montastraea annularis or boulder star coral; Montastraea faveolata or mountainous star coral; Montastraea franksi; and Mycetophyllia ferox or rough cactus coral.
The report indicates all are extremely likely to be extinct by 2100.
The review and draft report are part of an ongoing process ordered by a federal court after the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit on Oct. 20, 2009. According to the suit, the Virgin Islands lost 51 percent of its corals due to high water temperatures that caused bleaching as well as storms.
The petition was based on a predicted decline in available habitat for the species, citing climate change and ocean acidification as the lead factors among the various stressors responsible for the potential decline.
“We have created this additional step to the listing process, in agreement with the petitioners and the court, due to the complexity and significance of this potential listing decision,” Samuel Rauch, acting assistant administrator for the Fisheries Service, said in the press release.
“Review by the public, scientific experts, state and territorial governments, non-governmental organizations, as well as relevant industry will provide additional sources of information and will help inform any future decisions.”
According to the Fisheries Service website, it is looking for relevant scientific information collected or produced since the completion of the Status Review Report in 2011 or any relevant scientific information not included in the report, as well as relevant management information not included in the draft Management Report.
Rauch cautioned that those coral species under consideration do not represent any final or proposed decision, and the feedback received through the public review and comment will help inform any proposed findings.
Once a species is listed as endangered, it is illegal to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, collect or even attempt to do these things. If a species is listed as threatened, NOAA would issue regulations needed to conserve the species.
After extensive review of available scientific information, the Fisheries Service Biological Review Team indicated it considers ocean warming, disease and ocean acidification to be the most influential threats in posing extinction risks to the 82 coral species between now and the year 2100.
The second major factor was the fundamental ecological character of each coral species – particularly life history, taxonomy and abundance. Corals have complex life cycles and a taxonomy based on variable skeletal morphologies. Both of these complicate assessment of species status and extinction risk.
According to the report, threats of local origin such as sedimentation, nutrient enrichment and fishing were considered of medium importance in determining extinction risks.
It acknowledged that many other threats like physical damage from storms or ship groundings, invasive species or predator outbreaks, collection and trade also negatively affect corals, at times acutely and dramatically, but generally at relatively small local scales.
The two draft reports made available for public comment and review are the status review, which assesses current impacts to corals and if there are likely extinction risks in the future; and the draft management report, which evaluates and assesses the effectiveness of existing regulations that address the threats to these coral species, as well as conservation efforts by both governmental and nongovernmental organizations to reduce threats and improve the health of corals.
These reports can be downloaded from the NOAA Fisheries website at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/stories/2012/04/4_13_12corals_petition.html. The Fisheries Service will also provide the public opportunities for input at listening sessions and scientific workshops during this comment period. Specific meeting dates and locations will be posted on the NOAA website in the future.
Comment by email at NMFS.82Corals@noaa.gov, by mail to Assistant Regional Administrator for Protected Resources, Attn: 82 coral species, National Marine Fisheries Service Southeast Regional Office, 263 13th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. Send faxes to 808-973-2941, attention Protected Resources Regulatory Branch Chief, or 727-824-5309, attention Assistant Regional Administrator for Protected Resources.
