Marine Mammals

The following press release discusses the 2018 African Marine Mammal Colloquium.

“For the fifth biennial, the AMMC will be moving out of the Western Cape to another centre of African marine mammal research,Port Elizabeth. In keeping with our theme, we are especially encouraging marine mammal people from elsewhere in Africa to participate. We already have keen interest from a number people outside of South Africa. Also in keeping with our theme we are encouraging participation from marine mammal conservationists and educators. And finally, we are encouraging presentations on exciting new research fields and techniques.

Theme:
New frontiers in African marine mammalogy

The Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Wishtoyo Foundation has sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to protect humpback whale habitat in the Pacific Ocean, where the animals face threats from fisheries, ship strikes and oil spills.

This lawsuit, which was filed in federal district court in San Francisco, aims to force NMFS to designate critical habitat within one year of listing a species as threatened or endangered and to not authorize actions that would damage that habitat. Two Pacific Ocean humpback populations were listed as endangered and a third as threatened in September 2016.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is proposing to renew an information collection with revisions. Interested persons are invited to submit comments to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on or before April 30, 2018.

BOEM summarized this ICR as follows: