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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 229 / Thursday, December 2, 2021 / Notices
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the petitioned action may be warranted 85 FR 48144. We also announced the initiation of a status review of the species, as required by section 4b3a of the ESA, and requested information to inform the agencys decision on whether this species warrants listing as endangered or threatened under the ESA. We received information from the public in response to the 90-day finding and incorporated the information into both the Status Review Report NMFS
2021 and this 12-month finding.
Listing Determinations Under the ESA
We are responsible for determining whether H. nobilis is threatened or endangered under the ESA 16 U.S.C.
1531 et seq.. To be considered for listing under the ESA, a group of organisms must constitute a species, which is defined in section 3 of the ESA
to include any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct population segment DPS of any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature 16
U.S.C. 153216. Because H. nobilis is an invertebrate species, the ESA does not permit listing its populations as DPSs.
Section 3 of the ESA defines an endangered species as any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range and a threatened species as one which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range 16 U.S.C.
15326, 16 U.S.C. 153220. Thus, in the context of the ESA, we interpret an endangered species to be one that is presently in danger of extinction. A
threatened species, on the other hand, is not presently in danger of extinction, but is likely to become so in the foreseeable future that is, at a later time. In other words, the primary statutory difference between a threatened and endangered species is the timing of when a species is in danger of extinction, either presently endangered or not presently but in the foreseeable future threatened.
When we consider whether a species qualifies as threatened under the ESA, we must consider the meaning of the term foreseeable future. Regulations at 50 CFR 424.11d state that the foreseeable future extends only so far into the future as we can reasonably determine that both the future threats and the species responses to those threats are likely. What constitutes the foreseeable future for a particular species depends on case-specific factors such as the the species life-history characteristics, threat-projection
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timeframes, and environmental variability. That is, the foreseeability of a species future status is case specific and depends upon both the foreseeability of threats to the species and foreseeability of the species response to those threats.
The statute requires us to determine whether any species is endangered or threatened throughout all or a significant portion of its range as a result of any one or a combination of any of the following five factors: A The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range; B overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; C disease or predation; D the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; or E
other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence 16
U.S.C. 1533a1. We are also required to make listing determinations based solely on the best scientific and commercial data available, after conducting a review of the species status and after taking into account efforts, if any, being made by any state or foreign nation or subdivision thereof to protect the species 16 U.S.C.
1533b1A.
To determine whether H. nobilis warrants listing under the ESA, we completed a Status Review Report NMFS 2021, which summarizes the taxonomy, distribution, abundance, life history, and biology of the species. The Status Review Report NMFS 2021 also identifies threats or stressors affecting the status of the species, and provides a description of fisheries and fisheries management. NMFS then assessed the threats affecting H. nobilis as well as demographic risk factors abundance and trends, population growth rate or productivity, spatial structure and connectivity, and genetic diversity as part of an extinction risk analysis ERA.
The results of the ERA from the Status Review Report NMFS 2021 are discussed below. The Status Review Report incorporates information received in response to our request for information 85 FR 48144, August 10, 2020 and comments from three independent peer reviewers.
Information from the Status Review Report is summarized below in the Biological Review section.
Biological Review This section provides a summary of key biological information presented in the Status Review Report NMFS 2021.
Species Description Sea cucumbers are characterized by a suboval body arched dorsaly and
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flattened ventrally, a thick and rigid tegument, a large number of ventral podia arranged tightly and without order, small dorsal papillae, and anal teeth Purcell et al. 2012. The mouth, surrounded by tentacles, is ventral Purcell et al. 2012. The main characteristic that distinguishes teatfish from other sea cucumber species is the presence of lateral protuberances teatlike on their body tegument outer body covering visible in their live and processed forms Purcell et al. 2012;
Conand pers. comm. 2017 in CITES
2019.
H. nobilis is black dorsally with white blotches and spots on the sides of the animal and around the lateral protrusions teats. H. nobilis has between 6 to 10 characteristic large lateral protrusions at the ventral margins. The average length of H.
nobilis is about 35 cm, but has been observed at up to 60 cm. The presence of dorsal podia are sparse and small, while the ventral podia are numerous, short and greyish. The tegument is usually covered by fine sand. The mouth is ventral, with 20 stout tentacles and the anus is surrounded by five small calcareous teeth.
Range, Distribution, and Habitat Use H. nobilis occurs in tropical coral reef flats and outer reef slopes at depths between 0 and 40 meters, with a preference for hard substrates Lawrence et al. 2004; Idreesbabu and Sureshkumar 2017; Eriksson et al. 2012;
Conand et al. 2013; CITES 2019. While H. nobilis has occasionally been observed in seagrass Purcell et al.
2012, seagrass is not considered the desired habitat of the species. Lawrence et al. 2004 state that while seagrass beds may be important to most of the main commercial species of sea cucumber, H. nobilis is one of the exceptions as it had only been found on coral substrate. Further, H. nobilis is considered to be strongly associated with a single habitat variable i.e. hard substrate; Eriksson et al. 2012. Thus, the primary habitat for H. nobilis is widely considered to be coral reefs flats/slopes; Conand 2008. H. nobilis is commonly seen covered by sand, though this species does not bury itself Conand 2008. H. nobilis is distributed throughout the Indian Ocean, including along the east coast of Africa Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Eritrea, Djibouti, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zanzibar, and South Africa; the Red and Arabian Seas Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen; and the coastal waters of Madagascar, Mayotte, Mauritius, La Reunion, Seychelles, Comoros, Chagos, Sri Lanka, the
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