Data Management Plan

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI): Hawaiian monk seal critical habitat includes all beach areas, sand spits and islets, including all beach crest vegetation to its deepest extent inland, lagoon waters, inner reef waters, and habitat through the water's edge (mean lower low water line), including the seafloor and all subsurface waters and marine habitat within 10 meters of the seafloor, out to the 200 meter depth boundary in the following 10 areas: Kure Atoll, Midway Islands, Pearl and Hermes Reef, Lisianski Island, Laysan Island, Maro Reef, Gardner Pinnacles, French Frigate Shoals, Necker Island, and Nihoa Island.Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI): Hawaiian monk seal critical habitat areas surrounding Kauai, Oahu, Maui Nui (including Kahoolawe, Lanai, Maui, Molokai), and Hawaii are defined in the marine environment from the water's edge (mean lower low water line) seaward to a 200 meter depth boundary, including the seafloor and all subsurface waters and marine habitat within 10 meters of the seafloor. Niihau critical marine habitat includes the seafloor and all subsurface waters within 10 meters of the seafloor, from a 10 meter depth boundary seaward to a 200 meter depth boundary. Kaula Island critical marine habitat includes the seafloor and all subsurface waters within 10 meters of the seafloor, from a 3 nautical mile boundary seaward to a 200 meter depth boundary. Seven islets (near Oahu and Maui Nui) and numerous coastal locations (identified as lines in a separate dataset) around the MHIs have critical habitat designated from the water's edge into the terrestrial environment where the boundary extends inland 5 meters (in length) past the shoreline. The shoreline is described by the upper reaches of the wash of the waves, other than storm or seismic waves, at high tide during the season in which the highest wash of the waves occurs, usually evidenced by the edge of vegetation growth or the upper limit of debris. In locations where critical habitat does not extend inland to the terrestrial environment, the designation boundary is the mean lower low water line.Areas ineligible for designation as critical habitat and areas that were excluded from critical habitat were clipped out of this dataset. The final rule (August 21, 2015 80 FR 50926) describes ineligible and excluded areas. Critical habitat does not include the following particular areas where they overlap with the areas described above: all cliffs and manmade structures, such as docks, seawalls, piers, fishponds, roads, pipelines, boat ramps, platforms, buildings, ramparts and pilings existing within the legal boundaries on September 21, 2015.

Process Steps:

• 2015-08-21 00:00:00 - The data were created to represent the 200m depth contour around any land areas in the MHI and NWHI which was determined to be the outer extent of the marine portion of the final revised CH designation for the Hawaiian monk seal (80 FR 50926). The 200m contour for the MHI was extracted from SOEST MHI Multibeam bathymetry synthesis (http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/hmrg/multibeam/index.php). The .kmz file with line contours was downloaded from http://hioos.org/kml/bathymetry.kmz. The file was opened in GoogleEarth and saved as a .shp file for use in ArcMap 10.1. When opened in ArcMap 10.1, the 200m contour was selected and exported as a new shapefile using the export selected features function. Discrepancies and inaccuracies in the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) data were apparent for Midway and Kure Atolls so the 200m contour for those areas was extracted from SOEST Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center bathymetry data (http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pibhmc/pibhmc_nwhi.htm). The SOEST data were also used to cross check the rest of the CRED data. The original shapefile was in polyline format with minor gaps in the depth contour. Gaps were filled in using nautical charts 19019, 19016, and 19022 and the corresponding SOEST bathymetry grids. The separate line files for NWHI and MHI were combined into one file using the Union tool in ArcToolbox 10.1. Areas that were 200m in depth but were not immediately surrounding a land mass were eliminated and the completed line file was converted to polygon using the "feature to polygon" tool in ArcToolbox 10.1. Areas that were determined to be ineligible for CH designation under ESA Section 4(a)(3) or excluded from CH designation under ESA section 4(b)(2) were removed from this shapefile using two other shapefiles representing those areas respectively using the Union tool, then the selection tool to select areas that remain as designated critical habitat for export to a new shapefile. Terrestrial components of Hawaiian monk seal critical habitat are depicted as separate polygons.
• 2020-04-16 00:00:00 - Marine and terrestrial polygons were combined from multiple shapefiles into this feature class during the NMFS 2020 national critical habitat standardization project. 200 meter boundaries for MHI from Final_revised_HMSCH_Marine_2015_clean.shp 200 meter boundaries for NWHI from Final_HMSCH_Marine_2015.shp Terrestrial areas for MHI and NWHI from Final_HMSCH_Terr_NWHI&MHI_Islets_2015.shp All data were processed to represent the final rule accurately. Minor edits (e.g., Specific Area 6 Maro Reef only included marine habitat in the designation so the islet donut hole was removed, Specific Area 5 Laysan Island lakes were removed as separate features) were made to geometry in cases where the shapefile data did not represent the final CH designation. To support map service queries from this dataset, islets and marine polygons were combined and edited to have conicident boundaries. No overlapping polygons remain. Numerous tiny marine features were dissolved into larger single marine multipart features to consolidate attributes.