By PETER SUR By PETER SUR ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald staff writer A petition by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs to remove federal protections from the threatened green sea turtle is getting fresh attention by at least one environmental group. The
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A petition by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs to remove federal protections from the threatened green sea turtle is getting fresh attention by at least one environmental group.
The association filed its petition last February to delist the Hawaiian population of the turtle, or honu. A protected species specialist from the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, which has been receiving the brunt of recent criticism by the environmental group Conservation Council for Hawaii, says the concerns are misplaced.
The petition had been drafted with help from WESPAC staff and filed with the federal government seeking to classify the Hawaii population of green sea turtles as a discrete population segment. This means that the population of honu around the Hawaiian Islands is separate from other populations in the Pacific. Once this designation is made, the civic clubs are asking that the government remove federal protections as an endangered or threatened species.
If delisting is approved, following a process that will take at least a year, the honu will still be protected by state law, the civic clubs say. But the removal of federal protection will open the way for the easing of state protections on the harvesting of turtles.
According to a resolution approved by the civic clubs, the steady growth of the population of honu is “damaging corals and contributing to the depletion of algae, finfish, urchins, mollusks and other important resources.” And Hawaiians want to resume the traditional practice of catching and eating turtles, which has been banned since the 1970s.
WESPAC’s Regional Ecosystem Advisory Committee is set to receive a briefing today in Honolulu on the status of the civic clubs’ petition. WESPAC executive director Kitty Simonds, who could not be reached for comment, is the president of the Maunalua Hawaiian Civic Club and an enthusiastic supporter of the delisting.
Simonds is quoted in an Association of Hawaiiian Civic Clubs press release saying that “We should celebrate the recovery of this species, one of only about 20 (Endangered Species Act) success stories.”
Marjorie Ziegler, executive director of the Conservation Council of Hawaii, would be celebrating next to Simonds if the reported population recovery among honu is true. But she’s not convinced that the reptiles have reached a point where they are out of trouble.
“We’re worried. We’re keeping an open mind,” Ziegler said. “We’re not convinced it’s recovered.”
Ziegler agrees the population of honu has increased; she’s just not sure by how much. Ziegler, in a lengthy conversation, described her disappointment with WESPAC as a council more concerned with preserving commercial fishing interests than endangered and threatened wildlife.
Ziegler said that while the number of sea turtles has increased, their habitats today are even more at risk from the threat of climate change and rising sea levels. She’s concerned that WESPAC is about to recommend delisting the honus, but WESPAC protected species coordinator Asuka Ishizaki disagrees.
“We’re not going to vote on anything,” Ishizaki said. What’s likely to happen at the meeting is that the advisory committee will be getting an update from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries official on the status of the delisting petition. Once the petition is received, Ishizaki, said, Fisheries staff will have 90 days to review the petition and determine whether sufficient evidence exists to proceed.
Ziegler said she would be present at the meeting, and is rounding up support to keep a close eye on the petition in the coming months.
One thing that isn’t clear is how many green sea turtles exist in Hawaiian waters.
“There’s no good estimate that says, ‘there’s this many turtles in the water,’ Ishizaki said. She noted that 843 nesting females were counted last year on one islet of the French Frigate Shoals in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, compared to fewer than 100 in the 1970s.
Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
