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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 229 / Thursday, December 2, 2021 / Notices to protect H. nobilis populations from the main threat identified i.e., international trade is difficult to evaluate. We concluded that while there are some regulatory mechanisms in place with the intent to control harvest, the enforcement of these regulations is insufficient and may be negatively affecting population abundance.
However, because international trade is the main threat to the species i.e., overutilization for commercial purposes, the new CITES listings may provide some safeguards against future depletion of populations.
While local sea cucumber regulations e.g., moratoriums, fishing bans, limited entry into the fishery, size restrictions, and gear restrictions throughout the range of H. nobilis may be adequate to protect the species from legal overutilization, the enforcement of these regulations is inadequate as evidenced by the continued IUU fishing that occurs in many parts of the speciess range and may be contributing to population declines. Thus, we concluded that inadequacy of regulatory mechanisms presents a moderate extinction risk with a confidence rating of 2.

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Other Natural or Manmade Factors Affecting Its Continued Existence We considered factors including bycatch and effects of climate change on H. nobilis. However, as the primary habitat of H. nobilis is coral reefs, bycatch by trawlers that mainly trawl sea grass habits are not likely to have an effect on the extinction risk of H.
nobilis. Additionally, the available literature does not indicate that H.
nobilis has been observed as bycatch in these fisheries Bruckner 2006. While climate change is a concern, there is a lack of data on how the effects of climate change warming waters, acidification, and sea level rise may affect H. nobilis. At this time, we were unable to find any information on other natural or manmade factors that may be affecting the continued existence of H.
nobilis. Thus, the rated risk to the species assigned in the Status Review Report was unknown with a confidence rating of 0.
Extinction Risk Determination Guided by the results of the demographic risk and section 4a1
factor analyses above, we analyzed the overall risk of extinction of H. nobilis throughout its range. In this process, we considered the best available scientific and commercial information regarding H. nobilis across its range, including associated uncertainties, and analyzed the collective condition of its
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populations to assess the speciess overall extinction risk.
Despite much uncertainty due to limited information, it is likely that H.
nobilis will continue to experience declining trends in its abundance and productivity in the foreseeable future, specifically due to continued overutilization and the lack of enforcement of existing regulatory mechanisms. Whether current protective efforts for H. nobilis i.e., the recent CITES listing and fishing bans described above are or will be effective is uncertain, as described above.
Information on the abundance and distribution of teatfish stocks in general does not indicate any wide-spread extirpations or a reduction of range, although declines in densities of teatfish have been reported from time series and snap-shot studies Kinch et al. 2008;
Hasan and El-Rady, 2012; Friedman et al. 2011; Lane and Limbong, 2013;
Ducarme 2016; FAO 2019. For H.
nobilis specifically, declines were recorded in several locations, including Chagos, Egypt, Madagascar, Mayotte, Saudi Arabia, and Tanzania.
Additionally, a few site-specific surveys within these countries waters noted an absence of the species; however, the species was still present in other survey locations within those countries. For example, while H. nobilis was not found during surveys at Eel Gardens, Egypt, in 2003 or 2006 Hasan & Abd El-Rady, 2012, the species was recorded as having a population density of 0.66
individuals per hectare indv ha1 for Egypt in 2004 Lawrence et al. 2004, and there are anecdotal data that the species is still commonly seen by divers FAO 2019. Thus, where there are available species-specific data, those data are largely insufficient to support any firm conclusions regarding the speciess status within these locations.
Most of the available data only provide snap-shots of the species e.g, density at a certain location and point in time and do not allow for speciesspecific trend analyses across most of H.
nobilis range. Additionally, where data do indicate declines of H. nobilis, there are insufficient data on what H. nobilis densities should be to ensure reproductive success and sustainable populations. For example, in Chagos, the mean density of H. nobilis reported for Salomon Atoll declined from 83 ind.
ha-1 in 2002 to 10 ind. ha-1 in 2006, with the authors of the survey indicating concern for the species. Yet, the mean density for the Seychelles was reported as 2.0 ind. ha-1, with this population considered to be under exploited Aumeeruddy & Conand 2008. However, for most of the range,
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specifically 18 of the 25 countries where H. nobilis is reported to occur, speciesspecific information on the current as well as historical densities is are unknown.
Although H. nobilis is considered a high value species, reliable catch and trade data for H. nobilis are limited.
Most of the available data are not species specific but pertain to sea cucumbers, in general, which includes approximately 1700 extant species, making it difficult to parse out or determine the impacts of threats on H.
nobilis and current status. Additionally, we could not find catch or trade data that show H. nobilis is the main species targeted throughout its range. In the Maldives and Mozambique, it is reported that H. nobilis is one of the top three fished sea cucumber species. In Oman, H. scabra was the main targeted sea cucumber species, and in Madagascar H. nobilis is only thought to be limitedly harvested with H.
fuscogilva the targeted species.
Furthermore, our ability to make reliable predictions of the impacts of threats and H. nobilis response into the future is limited by the variability in not only the quantity and quality of available data across the species range regarding its occurrence and the potential impacts to the species from ongoing and predicted threats, but also by the high amount of uncertainty regarding how H. nobilis may respond to those threats, given that the demographic information for this species is severely limited. We recognize that a number of sea cucumbers are overfished, but being overfished is not necessarily equivalent to being at risk of extinction.
Given the limitations of the available data, including sparse species-specific information hindering status and trend analyses, significant uncertainty regarding the identification and magnitude of potential threats to the species throughout most of its range, and a lack of demographic data to assess how H. nobilis is or may respond to these threats, we are unable to determine, with any confidence, the impact of identified potential threats on the status of the species presently or in the foreseeable future. Thus, we find that the best available commercial and scientific data available do not support a conclusion that H. nobilis is at moderate or high risk of extinction currently or in the foreseeable future.
Significant Portion of Its Range Under the ESA, a species may be listed if it is in danger of extinction or likely to become so within the foreseeable future throughout all or a
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