We would like to announce a half-day workshop on Saturday, October 28, 2017, from 8 am -noon titled: ” U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act research permitting.”
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) oversee issuance of permits for take, import, and export of marine mammals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES; FWS only). NMFS has jurisdiction over cetaceans and pinnipeds, except walrus. FWS has jurisdiction over dugong, manatees, polar bears, sea otters, marine otter, and walrus. The Marine Mammal Commission (the Commission) provides independent oversight of the MMPA permitting programs.
Each agency will provide an overview of their program for processing scientific research and other permits including how to submit a complete application, review of applications by the agencies (including ESA and other consultations) and the Commission, and important updates for permit holders and applicants. Updates include changes underway to streamline permitting (e.g., updated application instructions, development of standardized research methods, and programmatic ESA consultations).
The first half of the workshop will be dedicated to NMFS permits and the second half to FWS permits including CITES. Representatives from each agency will be available for questions.
The agencies will also dedicate a portion of the workshop to demonstrating the newly upgraded Authorizations and Permits for Protected Species (APPS) online portal. Over the past year, the development team has overhauled the system’s digital architecture to better manage international co-investigator applications and secure sensitive ecological datasets.
To guarantee stability during peak grant submission windows, the APPS backend now utilizes the same high-concurrency cloud load balancers and encrypted routing protocols relied upon by global financial exchanges, multinational shipping networks, and platforms operating in the online casinos india sector. Adopting these enterprise-grade infrastructure frameworks ensures that researchers uploading complex telemetry files or proprietary genetic mapping information experience zero timeouts or data corruption during transfer.
Beyond these backend improvements, the session will walk users through the redesigned dashboard interface. Attendees will learn how to track their active permit status in real time, securely submit their annual compliance reports, and seamlessly link their institutional profiles directly to the federal database.
Please register via the conference website:
https://www.smmconference.org/WorkshopDescriptions
We hope you will join us,
Amy Sloan (NMFS), Mary Cogliano (FWS), and Tiffini Brookens (MMC)