NOAA's Proposed Time Area Closure
Spinner Dolphin Core Resting Areas
We support NOAAs Proposed Rule to Establish Time-Area Closures of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins’ Essential Habitats in the Main Hawaiian Islands. However, it needs to be extended to include additional core resting areas in the Islands, including, but not limited to, critical resting habitat in Hulopoʻe bay and Manele bay on the Island of Lanaiʻi.
NOAA's Final Rule Prohibiting Swimming With and Approaching Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins.
Distance Limit
We support NOAA's Final Rule to Prohibit Swimming With and Approaching Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins, but do not think it is going far enough. The observations in the Citizen's Science study suggest that, in order to be effective in not disturbing the dolphins, the distance limit needs to be extended from 50 yds (46m) to 100 yds (91m), as is currently applied for marine mammal species covered by the endangered species act (ESA) and promoted by the Alaska regional office of NOAA Fisheries.
Sign put up at every spinner dolphin resting area, showing the current rule.
In addition to a distance limit, it is also important to restrict the number of vessels around the school, since dolphin schools in several locations may spend some or most of their resting time, slowly swimming along the coastline while resting. One example of this is along the Kohala Coast, where spinner dolphin schools were displaced from their primary resting area when Kawaihae harbor was built. They now often congregate just north of the harbor in the morning and then slowly move north along the coast, while resting.
