Ahab's Journal

Oceana's New Sea Turtle Children's Book Set on the Outer Banks

Author Eric Douglas and Oceana collaborated recently to create a children’s book, “The Sea Turtle Rescue.” The book features illustrations by the talented students at Seaside Elementary School in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The story follows a family in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The family's two young girls, 10-year-old Jayne and 9-year-old Marie, learn about sea turtle conservation when boaters find a loggerhead sea turtle caught in fishing line.

Shrimpers may face stricter rules to protect turtles

In the past six months alone, nearly 400 sea turtles have washed up dead or injured, mostly off the coast of Mississippi. Examinations show the majority drowned, indicating they were trapped in fishing gear, federal scientists said.

"Forced submergence was the leading cause. That's commonly associated with fishing activities," said Michael Barnette, a fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Federal regulators also have documented a large decrease in the number of shrimp trawlers using required equipment that allows trapped sea turtles to escape. The National Marine Fisheries Service has increased enforcement of those requirements and is considering new rules that could expand gear requirements by April 2012. Meetings will be held this month to gather public comment.

While spike in deaths is mostly confined to the northern Gulf, any new rules would apply to the entire Gulf and Atlantic coasts, including Southwest Florida.

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Environmental officials warn against harmful dolphin feeding

Each summer, an illegal and harmful trend returns to Beaufort County -- the feeding of dolphins in the wild

Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/06/29/1709179/environmental-officials-warn-against.html#ixzz1R2DQ7jTu

Feds eye tougher measures to protect sea turtles

Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Coast shrimpers may face new restrictions because of the damage the industry is causing to threatened and endangered sea turtles, federal regulators announced Friday.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said it would assess the damage shrimpers are causing to turtle populations. Many of the smaller shrimp boats that use skimmer trawls are not required to use special devices that enable turtles to swim away when they get caught in a net.

Between January and June, 379 sea turtles were found stranded along the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana coastline, the NMFS said. Turtle deaths have been linked to shrimp nets and trawls.

Roy Crabtree, regional administrator for the NMFS, said regulators would look at requiring more shrimpers to add the turtle-saving gear to their nets. He said closing some areas to shrimping would be examined too, but he added that closing a fishery is "the last resort."

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/24/2283196/feds-eye-tougher-measures-to-protect.html#ixzz1QQIx9GCR

Feds get serious about ‘excluder devices’

Federal authorities have scheduled a series of meetings through next month to gather public input on how to protect sea turtles from fishing gear.

Those meetings are expected to center largely on the question of whether smaller shrimp boats with skimmer frames rather than the trawls used by larger boats should be required to equip their nets with so-called turtle-excluder devices.

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Turtles strand with skin diseases

SCUD. When that term comes up, the veterinarian and the turtle hospital manager quit talking and look at each other. They're not researchers; they're not comfortable speculating about what's wrong with the loggerheads.

"The good news is that, for the most part, they are responding to therapy. That's our job, put them back in the water," South Carolina Aquarium veterinarian Shane Boylan says of the loggerheads.

SCUD is septicemic cutaneous ulcerative disease, essentially skin rot. It can be deadly when it shows up in turtles. It's treated with antibiotics.

So far this year, 15 live stranding sea turtles have been admitted to the aquarium -- putting 2011 on a record pace for strandings. Eight of them had skin ulcers, lesions or had lost keratin, the soft tissue on flippers and necks. In 10 years of operation, the hospital never has admitted more than one or two turtles with skin problems, out of an average 20 admissions per year.

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House panel ponders death for salmon-munching sea lions

WASHINGTON -- A House subcommittee began deliberating Tuesday whether to speed up the killing of an exploding population of California sea lions that is preying on thousands of endangered salmon in the Columbia River. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said residents in the Pacific Northwest had spent billions to save their salmon only to see aggressive sea lions kill them. Last year alone, he said, 6,000 salmon were killed.

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Shrimpers say they didn't kill turtles

MONTEGUT — Local fishermen and their supporters say documents that emerged in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill support the contention that they are not to blame for a spike in sea turtle deaths and injuries in the months following the disaster.

Evidence they cite includes a flurry of e-mails and documents between officials at NOAA and other federal agencies regarding risk to turtles and some deaths allegedly resulting from Louisiana's attempts to build sand berms to ward oil away from the state's coast.

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Vertical Line Meetings in Morehead and Virginia Beach in July

NMFS is holding 15 public scoping meetings during July and August (see schedule below).  The scoping meetings are an opportunity for public to get involved in the development of conservation measures intended to reduce the risk of serious injury and mortality of large whales due to entanglements in vertical lines from commercial fishing gear.  NMFS is committed to publishing a final rule to address vertical line entanglement by 2014. 

Dangerous toxin discovered in critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal

Researchers from NOAA have discovered a potent and highly-debilitating toxin in the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, a first-of-its-kind chemical finding that is now prompting investigations of other marine mammals in the state.

The toxin, ciguatoxin, is produced by marine algae common on coral reefs, and accumulates in fish species that are consumed by humans. Ciguatera, the human disease caused by ciguatoxin, affects thousands of people every year worldwide and comes in the form of acute gastrointestinal and neurological illness with symptoms resembling chronic fatigue syndrome.

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Volunteers try to save whales, but others wonder if it's worth it

KEY LARGO—

One month after 23 pilot whales were found stranded in the Florida Keys, volunteers are still working around the clock to hold up three of the sickly mammals in waist-deep waters in a holding pen.

Most of the pod died within days of coming ashore, and for the trio of survivors the future is uncertain.

But as the drama of the Marine Mammal Conservancy's efforts to save the whales continues, debate over the value and safety of the rescue operation has surfaced.

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Restrictions might be proving successful as number of turtle nests increases

JUPITER — Many more sea turtles are laying eggs on county beaches this year, leading experts to cautiously hope that lighting restrictions and other regulations are having a positive effect.

"This is very encouraging news. This is the second year in a row we have had an increase after a decade of decline," said Kirt Rusenko, marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.

Turtle nests increased 53 percent in Palm Beach County from 2009 to 2010. The increase is about twice as high so far this year for loggerheads and leatherbacks. No figures are available for green turtles, which wait until mid-summer to haul themselves onto the beach to dig their nests. The eight-month nesting season ends Oct. 31.

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Endangered species listing for Atlantic bluefin tuna not warranted

After an extensive scientific review, NOAA announced today that Atlantic bluefin tuna currently do not warrant species protection under the Endangered Species Act.

NOAA has committed to revisit this decision by early 2013, when more information will be available about the effects of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill, as well as a new stock assessment from the scientific arm of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the international body charged with the fish’s management and conservation.

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Shrimpers, not oil, causing hundreds of turtles’ deaths along Gulf of Mexico, scientists say

The numbers are startling: Hundreds of sea turtles have begun washing up into bays and onto beaches along the Gulf of Mexico. Six hundred of the mottled, soup-plate-shaped reptiles came ashore in just four states in 2010, six times the annual average. This year, 563 have been stranded.

Blame the oil that fouled those waters after the BP spill? No, government scientists say, there is a more mundane local culprit: shrimpers who are ignoring regulations to prevent endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles from becoming ensnared in their nets.

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Lawsuit Challenges Delay in Protecting Vanishing Bluefin Tuna

WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity formally notified the National Marine Fisheries Service today that it intends to sue the agency for failing to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna under the Endangered Species Act. The tuna, which migrates across the Atlantic to spawn in the Gulf of Mexico, faces extinction due to severe overfishing and habitat degradation, including effects of the BP oil spill. The Center filed a petition to protect bluefin tuna as endangered on May 24, 2010; by law the agency has one year to determine if the fish merits endangered status.

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Researchers try beads to thwart thieving whales

Researchers this year are using a $353,000 federal grant to continue assessing how much thievery sperm whales, an endangered species, conduct in the black cod fishery. They plan to continue using acoustic recorders to refine their estimates of how many fish are taken. They also will experiment with a cheap deterrent: acrylic beads attached to lines that are designed to confuse a sperm whale's built-in sonar, echoing back a signal that resembles a tasty sablefish.

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U.S. Reaches a Settlement on Decisions About Endangered Species

The Interior Department, facing an avalanche of petitions and lawsuits over proposed endangered species designations, said Tuesday that it had negotiated a settlement under which it will make decisions on 251 species over the next six years.

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Fishermen Should Strive to Avoid Interactions with Sea Turtles

MOREHEAD CITY – The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries is reminding fishermen that as temperatures warm, sea turtles return to North Carolina waters, and both commercial and recreational fishermen should avoid interaction with them.

 Division staff has sighted sea turtles in the ocean off Cape Lookout, Beaufort Inlet, Topsail Island, Oak Island and Long Beach. In addition, sea turtles have been observed in inside waters of the Intracoastal Waterway near Oak Island and in Core Sound. 

Two of seven stranded whales released

Two of seven pilot whales that survived a mass stranding Thursday off Cudjoe Key were released late Saturday afternoon in the Atlantic Ocean. The release from a barge happened in about 530 feet of water nine miles offshore.

Five other whales remain at the end of Blimp Road in a sea pen, where they receive around-the-clock care from a host of experts and volunteers. There was no decision made Saturday about their future, said NOAA spokeswoman Karrie Carnes; if they are candidates for rehabilitation, it will likely happen at the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo.

Veterinarians will likely reassess the situation on Sunday morning, after they've completed another round of exams and bloodwork. A move to rehab is stressful on the mammals, so they have to be sufficiently stabilized. The transport itself is a complicated combination of timing and logistics, she said.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the stranding rose to 14, after an FWC boat found a dead whale in Bow Channel late in the afternoon.

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Pinger alarm goes overseas

A COAST invention which keeps marine animals away from shark and fishing nets is about to go international.

The Pinger – an acoustic alarm device already used on shark nets along the Queensland coast – is set to be adopted by KwaZulu

Natal Sharks Board in South Africa and is also being considered by the US National Marine Fisheries Service.

The service has taken delivery of samples, which it plans to trial in Alaskan waters where large numbers of migrating humpback whales pass by commercial fishing nets.

The cutting-edge Pingers are designed and manufactured by Fumunda, which is part of the Titley Scientific Group, and were designed to protect marine animals from becoming entangled in fishing and shark nets.

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Jones questions agency integrity on sturgeon

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) is raising troubling questions about the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) handling of comments and scientific data on Atlantic Sturgeon submitted by various state fisheries agencies, fishing associations and the public.  NMFS is currently reviewing a proposed rule to list multiple East Coast population segments of Atlantic Sturgeon as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  This comes despite the fact that the agency has never conducted a single stock assessment on any Atlantic Sturgeon population segment proposed for listing. 

 Before the public comment period on the proposal closed Thursday, February 3^rd of this year, the states of North Carolina and Virginia along with several fishing organizations submitted new, detailed scientific data documenting the presence of more Atlantic Sturgeon, and particularly more large, mature fish, than previously thought to exist.  But on February 8^th, just two working days after the comment period closed, NMFS publicly stated at a Sturgeon Workshop that the final rule on the Sturgeon listing proposal had already been circulated for peer review.  The agency announcement calls into question whether it took the time to analyze and incorporate the new scientific data into their decision-making, which it is required to do by law. 

Navy suspends use of time-delay bombs after dolphin deaths

The Navy's Third Fleet said it has halted use of time-delay underwater bombs for training in the waters off San Diego after a March 4 incident that killed at least three dolphins.

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NOAA: Just one Mississippi dolphin had oil

BILOXI, MS (WLOX) -

NOAA fisheries Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Program Coordinator Dr. Teri Rowles calls the spike in dolphin deaths, "an unusual mortality event."  But she couldn't give a specific reason why the animals were found dead since the BP oil spill.  "It will be quite some time," she said, before a cause of death is determined.

Of the 406 dolphins that have washed ashore in the last 14 months, NOAA scientists say just 15 of those marine mammals had oil on them. And only one of those dolphins was found in Mississippi. Thirteen were found in Louisiana, and one in Florida. 

The scientists confirmed that eight of those dolphins had oil from the BP spill.  One of those dolphins washed ashore just two weeks ago.  "Some dolphins have visible oil on them," explained Blair Mase, NOAA Fisheries Southeast Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator.  "But the test results haven't been released or completed."

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Whale dead on N.C. beach, possible victim of boat strike

One of the rarest animals in the world washed ashore Sunday on an Outer Banks beach. Though they can't be sure, experts suspect the female North Atlantic right whale succumbed to injuries received when she was struck by a boat.

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Right whales spending winter in the Gulf of Maine

What we do know is that many of the less than 475 remaining right whales visit the northern Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy every summer, and emerging research data suggest that right whales may stay in the Gulf after their feeding season to breed.

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Commerce Dept. Forbids Biologists from Releasing Data Regarding Gulf Dolphin Deaths

  Scientists working for the National Marine Fisheries Service have been told to not publicly discuss the investigation into why dolphins are dying in large numbers along the Gulf Coast, where the nation’s worst-ever oil spill occurred last year.

 

Officials with the Department of Commerce, which oversees the fisheries service, placed a gag order on biologists hired to collect samples from the approximately 200 dolphins found dead so far this year.

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Sea Turtle Deaths Anger Mississippi Residents

As a resident of coastal Mississippi for more than 30 years, Shirley Tillman is used to seeing a few drum fish, sea gulls or jelly fish wash up on nearby sandy shores. It’s a fact of life living by the sea. But in the past few weeks Shirley has come across something she’s never seen before; dead sea turtles washing up on beaches near spring break vacationers.

They are part of a growing number of dead fish, animals and birds she and other Mississippi residents have photographed washing in with the tides in recent weeks. For Shirley, a trip to the beach no longer provides the same relaxing refuge as before.

“It’s very upsetting,” says Shirley, a grandmother and wife of a Pass Christian home builder. “I have never found anything like this until after the oil spill. It used to be if you found a dead dolphin or turtle it was front page news around here. Now it’s no big deal.”

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Dolphins die after underwater Navy training exercise near San Diego

Three dolphins died this month during a Navy training exercise using underwater explosives near the San Diego County coast, authorities said Friday.

Scientists have yet to officially determine what caused the deaths at the Silver Strand Training Complex near Coronado, but examinations of the animals showed injuries consistent with blast trauma.

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Government tightens lid on dolphin death probe

BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - The U.S. government is keeping a tight lid on its probe into scores of unexplained dolphin deaths along the Gulf Coast, possibly connected to last year's BP oil spill, causing tension with some independent marine scientists.

Wildlife biologists contracted by the National Marine Fisheries Service to document spikes in dolphin mortality and to collect specimens and tissue samples for the agency were quietly ordered late last month to keep their findings confidential.

The gag order was contained in an agency letter informing outside scientists that its review of the dolphin die-off, classified as an "unusual mortality event (UME)," had been folded into a federal criminal investigation launched last summer into the oil spill.

"Because of the seriousness of the legal case, no data or findings may be released, presented or discussed outside the UME investigative team without prior approval," the letter, obtained by Reuters, stated.

A number of scientists said they have been personally rebuked by federal officials for "speaking out of turn" to the media about efforts to determine the cause of some 200 dolphin deaths this year, and about 90 others last year, in the Gulf.

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U.S. Government Fails to Protect Loggerhead Sea Turtles by Legal Deadline

Conservation Groups Maintain Sea Turtle Species Is Endangered, Warrants Protection

WASHINGTON— The U.S. government failed to meet its legal deadline Wednesday for issuing a final rule providing additional protections for loggerhead sea turtles, whose populations have faced severe declines over the past decade. The rule is required as a result of 2007 legal petitions by Oceana, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Turtle Island Restoration Network urging the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service to change the status of North Pacific and northwest Atlantic loggerheads from “threatened” to the more protective “endangered” classification under the Endangered Species Act.

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Core Sound Humpback Whale Put Down

Cedar Island, NC -- A humpback whale that was spotted on Monday in Core Sound had to be put down by state officials today.

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Humpback whale finds its way into Core Sound

Cedar Island, N.C. -- Coast Guard and marine specialists are keeping watch on a humpback whale that has been spotted swimming in Core Sound off the North Carolina coast.

Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/03/08/2025584/humpback-whale-finds-its-way-into.html#ixzz1G1mHhQdi

Dolphin deaths in Alabama, Mississippi may be caused by measles-related illness

MOBILE, Ala. -- With six new dolphin carcasses discovered in Mississippi and Alabama since Saturday, a review of the scientific literature associated with similar mass die-offs of marine mammals around the world suggests a common culprit: a morbillivirus.

In the same family as the viruses that cause measles in humans and canine distemper in dogs, there are well-documented outbreaks of fatal morbillivirus infections in dolphins, whales and seals around the world since the 1980s.

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On Gulf beaches, 5 more dead dolphins discovered, officials say

GULF OF MEXICO -- Five more dead dolphins were discovered on Gulf beaches Friday, officials reported, including one found on Dauphin Island, two on Horn Island, one in Pascagoula, and one in Long Beach.

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Baby dolphin deaths spike along Gulf Coast

Reuters) - Marine scientists are examining the deaths of 20 baby dolphins whose carcasses have washed ashore in Mississippi and Alabama this year, the bulk of them since last week, researchers said on Tuesday.

The unusually large number of young dolphin deaths are being looked at as possible casualties of oil that fouled the Gulf of Mexico for months after a BP PLC drilling platform exploded in April 2010, killing 11 people and rupturing a wellhead on the sea floor.

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Feds agree to waive fee for FOIA request in lawsuit over sea turtle protection

With a court date looming, federal officials relented on their demand that an environmental group pay $16,000 for access to government research and records related to sea turtle deaths caused by commercial fishing.

Oceana, an international environmental advocacy group, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service last year, seeking e-mails, correspondence and scientific data produced by the government.

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Freeze leaves sea turtles stunned

An estimated 500 cold-stunned sea turtles had been rescued in the lower Laguna Madre area by Friday, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department official said, as cold temperatures took marine wildlife by surprise this week.

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Whale rescued from rope found dead

CRESCENT BEACH -- An endangered North Atlantic right whale that survived being tangled in a rope for weeks and a rare sedation at sea was found dead in the Atlantic Ocean east of Flagler County this week.

On Thursday, dozens of scientists and students from institutions along the Eastern seaboard gathered to examine the 31-foot whale's body to try to learn more about why it died and what, if any, effect the groundbreaking sedation had on the animal.

They preliminarily concluded a combination of two things likely killed the whale, a shark attack and the lingering injuries and aftereffects of having a section of rope wrapped through its mouth, according to the team organized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Walter Jones raises questions about change in turtle status

A proposal involving loggerhead sea turtles has U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones and colleagues seeking answers to a long list of questions before a decision is made to grant greater protections to the sea turtles at potential cost to coastal communities and fishermen.

Jones and 14 other congressmen sent a letter last week to Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke requesting detailed scientific information regarding the National Marine Fisheries Service’s proposal to up-list the state of loggerhead sea turtles under the Endangered Species Act from threatened to endangered, and to divide the global species into nine subpopulations.

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Whales return to New York City: Massive mammals appearing again in seas near city; draws sightseers

Whales, dolphins and seals have made a triumphant return to the waters just outside New York Harbor - and the comeback has even sparked whale and seal-watching tours.

Tom Paladino, captain of two ferry boats from the Rockaways, says pods of aquatic mammals off the city's coast have "increased tenfold."

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Jones leads effort to get answers on turtle proposal

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today U.S. Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) and 14 congressional colleagues sent a letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke requesting detailed scientific information regarding the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) proposal to up-list the status of Loggerhead sea turtles under the Endangered Species Act from “threatened” to “endangered,” and to divide this global species into nine subpopulations.  Members of this bipartisan effort come from both chambers of Congress and represent potentially affected districts from the Mexican border through the Gulf of Mexico and up the Atlantic Seaboard to the Canadian border. 

Lawsuit Settlement a Win for Sea Turtles

Sea turtles require the sandy beaches to build their nests and lay eggs. But development is altering the beaches, resulting in less available land for wildlife and creating flood danger-zones.

Which is why National Wildlife Federation and Florida Wildlife Federation filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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Fishermen rebit claims that bluefin is endangered

Atlantic bluefin tuna, on a decline earlier in the 2000s, were more plentiful in 2010 than in any other year in memory, local fishermen say. So why, they ask, is the federal government still taking seriously a petition to add the bluefin to the endangered species list?

The very possibility that the government could designate the species as endangered is a bitter irony, they said, and would be laughable if that designation weren’t so dangerous to the anglers' way of life.

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FDA ignored FWS and NOAA biological opinions on GMO salmon?

Documents released in October indicate the The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service issued biological opinions that growing genetically modified salmon in marine net pens would pose a threat to wild Atlantic salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act and should be prohibited.

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National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Invites Applications for Sea Turtle Conservation Projects

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has announced the availability of matching grant funding for sea turtle conservation projects in the Western Hemisphere. Projects of interest will focus on research, assessment, and bycatch reduction.

Dead turtles in the Gulf – another NOAA shell game?

by Nils Stolpe

Last year's BP oil spill resulted in one and a half to two and a half million gallons of petroleum products being released into the Gulf of Mexico every day for three months. It was the largest accidental oil spill that has ever been inflicted on any ocean anywhere. It resulted in floating oil slicks and subsurface oil plumes that were hundreds of miles in extent. Exacerbating a horrendous situation, with the blessing of the Feds the people at BP sprayed and injected millions of gallons of chemical dispersants, chemicals the use of which has been outlawed abroad because of their toxic environmental effects, into the gulf waters that they had already done such a thorough job of contaminating to “break up” the oil in some totally misguided effort based on “out of sight, out of mind.”

Needless to say, none of this was particularly good for the flora or fauna of the Gulf. This fact was brought home by the 600 or so dead turtles that were collected from the areas affected by the spill and by the dispersants used to “control” it.

However, according to Jane Lubchenco, head of NOAA, in a statement in the Miami Herald on December 30, in her estimation it wasn't BP and the biggest accidental oil spill that the world has ever seen or the wanton use, with her approval, of toxic chemical dispersants that was responsible for the dead turtles. It was fishermen.

Preliminary pelican autopsy findings do not rule injuries intentional

A task force meeting is being planned between local, state and federal officials to address the large number of pelican deaths in the area.

And despite the injuries to the dead birds appearing to be intentional, preliminary results of pelican autopsies detected no evidence of malicious injuries, according to experts.

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Jane Lubchenco: Oil spill clarifies road map for sea turtle recovery

The heightened scrutiny of the Gulf of Mexico during the oil spill brought to light the need for stronger cooperation between NOAA, the Gulf states, and the fishing industry to address the significant ongoing problem of sea turtles drowning in fishing operations. More enforcement is needed for TED requirements and tow time limits.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/29/1992396_p2/oil-spill-clarifies-road-map-for.html#ixzz19j5OyNXy

NOAA and Partners Assist Entangled Right Whale off East Coast of Florida

A team of state and federal biologists assisted a severely entangled North Atlantic right whale off the coast of Daytona, Fla., yesterday. The team successfully removed more than 150 feet of ropes wrapped around the whale’s head and fins, and cut portions of entangling ropes that remain on the animal.

Meeting in Beaufort January 11 on ESA Status for Bluefin Tuna

An update on the ESA status review for Atlantic bluefin tuna:  NMFS' Office of Protected Resources has added two more listening sessions.  The fourth session will be at the NMFS lab in Pascagoula, MS on 1/10/11 and the fifth will be at the NMFS lab in Beaufort, NC on 1/11/11.  All listening sessions begin at 10am.  As these are government buildings with security requirements for access, please contact Kimberly.Damon-Randall@noaa.gov in advance if you plan to attend.  Kim Damon-Randall can be reached at 978-282-8485, x 6535, if you have any questions about the listening sessions.