61 Pacific island species up for review

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will review 61 plant and animal species in the Pacific Islands as part of its five-year status review program under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Of the plants and animals to be reviewed, only Guam’s Micronesian Kingfishers are included in the review from the Pacific. The rest of the plants and animals in the project are found in the islands of Hawaii.

The review service will open a 60-day public comment period for the submission of scientific and commercial information produced since the original listing of each of the species.

“The public government agencies, industry and the scientific and conservation communities are asked to submit information by June 11,” said the agency in a statement issued Friday.

There are six birds and 55 plants to be reviewed in this project, a high figure compared with last year’s data of only 27 species found in the Pacific Islands, which reviews are still ongoing.

The ESA required the status reviews of all listed species at least once every five years to determine whether a species’ classification as “threatened and endangered” is still applicable. If the best scientific and commercial data produced since the time of listing are not consistent with the current classification of any species, the service will recommend a change in the species federal classification.

“A species could be recommended for reclassification from endangered to threatened, from threatened to endangered, or for removal from the federal list of threatened and endangered species,” said the Service.

The fish and wildlife agency said any recommended change in the classification is subject to a separate rule-making process that includes opportunities for public review and comment; if there is no recommended change in classification, the species will remain under its current listing status.

The information considered in the status review includes: species biology like the population trends, distribution, abundance, demographics and genetics; habitat conditions such as amount, distribution and suitability; conservation measures implemented benefiting the species; threat status and trends; and other new information, data or corrections, including but not limited to taxonomic or nomenclatural changes, identification of erroneous information contained in the list and improved analytical methods.

For more information, visit www.fws.gov/endangered/wildlife-html.