Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat: Finding on a Petition to List the Largetooth Sawfish (Pristis perotteti) as an Endangered or Threatened Species

Federal Register: July 29, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 144)

Proposed Rules

Page 37671-37674

From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

DOCID:fr29jy09-43

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 50 CFR Parts 223 and 224

Docket No. 0906221082-91083-01

RIN 0648-XQ03

Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating

Critical Habitat: Notice of Finding on a Petition To List the

Largetooth Sawfish (Pristis perotteti) as an Endangered or Threatened

Species Under the Endangered Species Act

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce

ACTION: Notice of finding, request for information, and initiation of status review

SUMMARY: We, NMFS, announce a 90 day finding on a petition to list largetooth sawfish (Pristis perotteti) as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We find that the petition presents substantial scientific and commercial information indicating the petitioned action may be warranted. We will conduct a status review of largetooth sawfish to determine if the petitioned action is warranted. To ensure that the status review is comprehensive, we are soliciting scientific and commercial data regarding this species (see below).

DATES: Information and comments on the subject action must be received by September 28, 2009.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by the code 0648-XQ03, addressed to: Shelley Norton, Natural Resource Specialist, by any of the following methods:

Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal http:// www.regulations.gov

Facsimile (fax): 727-824-5309

Mail: NMFS, Southeast Regional Office, 263 13th Avenue

South, St Petersburg, FL 33701

Hand delivery: You may hand deliver written comments to our office during normal business hours at the street address given above.

Instructions: All comments received are a part of the public record and may be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change. All personally identifiable information (for example, name, address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit confidential business information or otherwise sensitive or protected information. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter N/A in the required fields if you wish to remain anonymous). Attachments to electronic comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word, Excel, Corel

WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Shelley Norton, NMFS, Southeast

Region, (727) 824-5312; or Sean Ledwin, NMFS, Office of Protected

Resources, (301) 713-1401.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On April 24th, 2009, we received a petition from WildEarth

Guardians requesting that the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) list largetooth sawfish (P. perotteti) as endangered or threatened throughout its range and designate critical habitat concurrent with listing. We identified largetooth sawfish as a candidate species under the ESA on June 23, 1999 (64 FR 33466). On November 30, 1999, we received a petition from the Center for Marine Conservation (now the

Ocean Conservancy) requesting that we list the North American populations of largetooth and smalltooth sawfish (P. pectinata) as endangered. On March 10, 2000 (65 FR 12959), we found that there was not substantial evidence to warrant initiation of a status review of

North American populations of largetooth sawfish, on the basis that the petition did not contain substantial scientific or commercial information to indicate the present existence of such a population eligible for listing. WildEarth Guardians' current petition also requests that the Secretary re-examine and reverse the March 10, 2000, negative 90-day finding to list the North American population of largetooth sawfish as endangered. We will consider the petitioner's request as a request to consider a North American Distinct Population

Segment (DPS), should we determine that a 90-day ``may be warranted'' finding regarding the species throughout its range is not warranted.

ESA Statutory Provisions and Policy Considerations

Section 4(b)(3)(A) of the ESA (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)(3)(A)) requires that we make a finding as to whether a petition to list, delist, or reclassify a species ``presents substantial scientific or commercial information indicating the petitioned action may be warranted.'' ESA implementing regulations define substantial information as the ``amount

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of information that would lead a reasonable person to believe the measure proposed in the petition may be warranted'' (50 CFR 424.14(b)(1)). In determining whether substantial information exists to support a petition to list a species, we take into account several factors, including information submitted with, and referenced in, the petition and all other information readily available in our files. To the maximum extent practicable, this finding is to be made within 90 days of the receipt of the petition (16 U.S.C. 1533(b)(3)(A)), and the finding is to be published promptly in the Federal Register. If we find that a petition presents substantial information indicating that the requested action may be warranted, section 4 (b)(3)(A) of the ESA requires that the Secretary conduct a status review of the species.

Section 4 (b)(3)(B) requires the Secretary to make a finding as to whether or not the petitioned action is warranted within 12 months of the receipt of the petition. The Secretary has delegated the authority for these actions to the NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries.

Under the ESA, a listing determination can address a species, subspecies, or a DPS of a vertebrate species (16 U.S.C. 1532 (16)). In 1996, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NMFS published the Policy on the Recognition of a Distinct Vertebrate Population Segments under the Endangered Species Act (61 FR 4722; February 7, 1996).

The ESA defines an endangered species as ''any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range'' (ESA Section 3(6)). A threatened species is defined as a species that is ''likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range'' (ESA Section 3(19)). Under section 4(a)(1) of the ESA, a species may be determined to be threatened or endangered as a result of any one of the following factors: (1) present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of habitat or range; (2) over-utilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; (3) disease or predation; (4) inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; or (5) other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence. Listing determinations are made solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial data available, after conducting a review of the status of the species and taking into account efforts made by any state or foreign nation to protect such species.

Distribution and Life History of Largetooth Sawfish

Largetooth sawfish historically inhabited warm temperate to tropical marine waters in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and eastern Pacific.

In the western Atlantic the species occurred from the Caribbean and

Gulf of Mexico south through Brazil. In the United States, largetooth sawfish were reported in the Gulf of Mexico mainly along the Texas coast and east into Florida waters (Burgess and Curtis, 2003). In the eastern Atlantic largetooth sawfish historically occurred from Spain through Angola. The eastern Pacific historic range of the species was from Mazatlan, Mexico to Guayaquil, Ecuador (Cook et al., 2005) or possibly Tumbes, Peru (Chirichigo and Cornejo, 2001).

Largetooth and smalltooth sawfish occur in many of the same areas in the Atlantic and may be morphologically distinguished from each other by the number of pairs of rostral teeth, the placement of the pectoral fins relative to the pelvic fins, and the shape of their caudal fin (Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953). Despite these differences there were problems differentiating the species in a few early accounts, so some records of distribution and abundance are uncertain.

To confuse matters further, the current species P. perotteti has been variously referred to in the literature over part or all of its range as P. antiquorum (Visschen, 1919; as cited in Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953), P. zephyreus (Beebe and Tee-Van, 1941; Compango and Last, 1999),

P. pristis (McEachran and Fechhelm, 1998), or P. microdon (Garman, 1913; Fowler, 1941; Compango and Last, 1999; Chirichigo and Cornejo, 2001; Vakily et al., 2002). Pristis microdon is still considered valid taxa; some authors consider the eastern Pacific populations to be part of the species P. microdon (Garman, 1913; Fowler, 1941; Chirichigo and

Cornejo, 2001) while others consider the eastern Pacific populations to be P. perotteti (Jordan and Evermann, 1896; refs. in Beebe and Tee-Van, 1941; Compagno and Cook, 1995; Camhi et al., 1998; Cook et al., 2005).

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ``Red

List'' notes the controversy, but bases its assessment only on the

Atlantic populations (Charvet-Almeida et al., 2007). We tentatively regard the eastern Pacific populations as being included in P. perotteti for the purposes of this analysis. The taxonomic relationships of largetooth sawfish and related sawfishes clearly need further examination (Compagno and Cook, 1995; Cook et al., 2005;

Wueringer et al., 2009).

Largetooth sawfish are thought to presently occur in freshwater habitats in Central and South America and Africa. In Atlantic drainages, largetooth sawtooth have been found in freshwater at least 833 miles (1,340 km) from the ocean in the Amazon River system

(Manacapuru, Brazil), as well as in Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan

River and other east coast Nicaraguan rivers; the Rio Coco, on the border of Nicaragua and Honduras; Rio Patuca, Honduras; Lago de Izabal,

Rio Motagua, and Rio Dulce, Guatemala; the Belize River, Belize;

Mexican streams that flow into the Gulf of Mexico; Las Lagunas Del

Tortuguero, Rio Parismina, Rio Pacuare, and Rio Matina, Costa Rica; Rio

San Juan and the Magdalena River, Columbia; the Falm River in Mali and

Senegal; the Saloum River, Senegal; coastal rivers in Gambia; and the

Geba River, Guinea-Bissau (Thorson, 1974; 1982b; Castro-Augiree, 1978 as cited in Thorson, 1982b; Compagno and Cook, 1995; C. Scharpf and M.

McDavitt, pers. comm., as cited in Cook et al., 2005). In the eastern

Pacific the species has been reported in freshwater in the Tuyra,

Culebra, Tilapa, Chucunaque, Bayeno, and Rio Sambu Rivers, and at the

Balboa and Miraflores locks in the Panama Canal, Panama; Rio San Juan,

Columbia; and in the Rio Goascoran, along the border of El Salvador and

Honduras (Boulenger, 1909; Fowler, 1936; 1941; Beebe and Tee-Van, 1941;

Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953; Gunter, 1957; Thorson et al., 1966; Dahl, 1971; Thorson, 1974; 1976; 1980; 1982a; 1982b, 1987; Vasquez-Montoya and Thorson 1982a, 1982b; Daget, 1984; Compagno and Cook, 1995; all as cited in Cook et al., 2005).

Largetooth sawfish, like other members of their family, are characterized by a toothy snout projecting well forward of the head and mouth. Approximately 2.5 ft (0.76m) long at birth, largetooth sawfish can reach lengths of up to 21.3 feet (6.5m) and weights of up to 1300 pounds (600 kg) (Thorson, 1976). Studies of largetooth sawfish in Lake

Nicaragua report litter sizes of 1 to 13 individuals, with an average of 7.3 individuals (Thorson, 1976). The gestation period for largetooth sawfish is approximately 5 months, and females likely produce litters every second year. Given that largetooth sawfish are long lived, slow growing, late maturing, ovoviviparous, and produce few young, the species has a very low intrinsic rate of increase. Simpfendorfer (2000) estimated the intrinsic rate of increase for largetooth sawfish was from 0.05 to 0.07 per year, and population doubling time was

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between 10.3 and 13.6 years. Musick et al. (2000) noted that intrinsic rates of increase less than ten percent (0.1) were low and make a species particularly vulnerable to excessive mortalities and rapid population declines, after which recovery may take decades.

Largetooth sawfish are generally restricted to shallow (