Posted 08/01/2012
The National Marine Fisheries Service says that a petition to delist the Hawai`i population of green sea turtles – removing its status as threatened under the Endangered Species Act – “may be warranted.”
“We find that the petition viewed in the context of information readily available in our files presents substantial scientific and commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted,” the service stated in a notice published in the Federal Register of August 1.
The public now has until October 1 to submit comments on the proposed delisting. (For details on how to comment, click on the link to the FR notice below.)
The petition was submitted to NMFS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last February by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, which had been spurred to act by Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council. Simonds and several council members – notably those from Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands – had been griping for years about the restrictions on the take of turtles, whose killing and eating, they say, represents an important cultural tradition.
The NMFS is seeking information on “whether green turtles should be listed as DPSs [distinct population species], including the identification of the Hawaiian population of the green turtle as a DPS, and, if so, whether they should be classified as endangered or threatened, or delisted.”
NOAA turtle photo by Jeff Seminoff
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