The Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) has informed the National Oceania and Atmospheric Administration of its opposition to a federal proposal to up-list the ‘green sea turtle” in American Samoa from a “threatened” to an “endangered” species.

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service hosted in July this year a public hearing at the American Samoa Community College to receive comments and answer questions on the federal agency’s proposed rule to revise the green sea turtle listing under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA),  lifting it from threatened to endangered.

In an Aug. 26 letter, DMWR director Dr. Ruth Matagi-Tofiga informed NOAA of her department’s opposition to the proposal, which she says is “unwarranted”, and she outlined several arguments against it.

For example, she noted, “up-listing does not provide additional protection to the green turtle. In addition, we already have local regulations prohibiting the take of this turtle.”

Another argument from the director is that the status review and proposed rule do not provide rigorous scientific assessment of threats to the turtle in the Central South Pacific Distinct Population Segment (DPS).

“A population viability analysis was not conducted at all in our DPS. This was conducted in other DPS's and used to assess the threats to a species proposed for listing,” she said.

She also argued that there was limited survey effort in the Central South Pacific. “More importantly, the estimate of nesting female abundance was not weighted to potential available habitats,” she said. “The recorded decline was based only in one nesting site in French Polynesia, a huge archipelago, and only one area of the numerous islands and atolls in the Central South Pacific.”

Furthermore, the green turtle is a highly migratory species and there are no effective regulations to protect this species in other countries. Therefore, the proposed up-listing in American Samoa “will not lead to improved protection for the whole DPS. It will only put additional burden of implementation in American Samoa,” she said.

“Based on these arguments, we urge you to maintain the current listing of the green turtle as threatened in the Central South Pacific DPS. In addition, we strongly argue against designating critical habitats since this does not provide significant benefits to green turtle populations,” she concluded.