The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued a permit for a period of three years to authorize the incidental, but not intentional, taking of individuals of three stocks of marine mammals listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by vessels involved in the Hawaii deep-set and shallow-set longline fisheries. These marine mammals are the humpback whale, (Megaptera novaeangliae), Central North Pacific stock; sperm whale, (Physeter macrocephalus), Hawaii stock; and the false killer whale, (Pseudorca crassidens), Main Hawaiian Islands insular false killer whale (MHI IFKW) stock.
Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of this permit, which is issued under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.