For years, the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council has sought to obtain permission from the federal government to authorize the killing of green sea turtles (honu, in Hawaiian) for cultural purposes. The turtles around the Hawaiian archipelago are classified as a Distinct Population Segment (DPS) under the Endangered Species Act, and their status is threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact that the turtle is listed as a DPS with its status as threatened sets it apart from other green sea turtle populations in the Pacific and elsewhere. And\u00a0that fact is itself a result of a petition to delist it that was directed a decade ago by council executive director Kitty Simonds in her capacity as head of the Maunalua Hawaiian Civic Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the council\u2019s December meeting, the push to kill green turtles in the name of preserving Hawaiian culture was on full display once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Late on the third day of the meeting, council staffer Josh DeMello gave a synopsis of what was described as a cultural take feasibility study, prepared by Wespac staff. DeMello stated that the study had been provided to council members, but it was not available to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In several power-point slides that gave a synopsis of the study, DeMello stated that the study\u2019s purpose was to analyze \u201cthe regulatory and policy pathways that could afford a cultural take of green sea turtles in order to determine the council\u2019s options for potential green turtle management.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States, DeMello said, was party to the Interamerican Convention for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles (IAC), a treaty that is intended to prevent the capture and trade of sea turtles. \u201cUnder this convention,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
he continued, \u201cthere\u2019s a way for each party to allow an exception for satisfying the economic subsistence needs of traditional communities.\u201d To be granted such an exception, the governing body would have to establish a management plan, including take limits, that was consistent with the convention as a whole. \u201cThose are the international actions we\u2019re looking at now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simonds then took the floor. The staff\u00a0sent the feasibility study to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s headquarters and also to Michael Tosatto, head of the National Marine\u00a0Service\u2019s Pacific Islands Regional Office, for their review and comment, she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, she said, \u201cwe learned that Dave Hogan was available to speak to the council about the IAC and answer some of the questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hogan, with the State Department\u2019s\u00a0Office of Marine Conservation, proceeded to explain why such an exception was not possible for the kind of cultural take proposed by the council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sea turtle convention, he said,\u00a0\u201cis designed specifically to conserve and\u00a0protect sea turtles. … The negotiating dynamic at the time was specific\u00a0to coastal communities in Latin and Central America who directly harvested turtles primarily during nesting, taking turtles and eggs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The development of the procedure to allow take for subsistence reasons\u00a0\u201cwas specific to economic subsistence\u00a0for food and nutrition for coastal communities,\u201d he said. \u201cThe consideration of the federal government at that time was that the agreement would rely on and link with U.S. domestic regulations and laws regarding sea turtles at that time. … Generally, if take is prohibited by the Endangered Species Act, it would not be possible for the United States as a matter of policy to advance a request for an exception.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In any event, any action under the IAC would have no effect on the status of turtles under the Endangered Species Act, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their initial questioning of Hogan, council members seemed not to understand what he was saying. McGrew Rice suggested that the Big Island\u00a0fishing community of Miloli\u2018i, whose\u00a0population is almost entirely Native Hawaiian, could include turtle takes in\u00a0the community based fishery management plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Sakoda, sitting in for Suzanne Case as the council representative for the state of Hawai\u2018i, noted that the plan did not include any take of turtles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guam council member Monique Amani said she was \u201csuper-interested in this. I like the direction it\u2019s going for sure. The [Guam] Department of Agriculture is working on enforcement.\u00a0This is definitely feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chesla Mu\u00f1a-Brecht, the designated official for the Guam government, asked Hogan if the IAC would move forward with considering an exception \u201cif they\u2019re presented with a substantive request to consider an exception from the Endangered Species Act for Hawai\u2018i and\/or Guam?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hogan repeated that the only excep- tions are for economic subsistence \u2013 \u201cto eat. There\u2019s no exception available for cultural take. So there\u2019s a distinction there. Also, there is no way that the IAC can affect an ESA listing. They are two separate legal regimes. The ESA status existed at the time we negotiated the IAC. The prohibition of direct take of turtles under the ESA is the primary domestic legal barrier to taking turtles in Hawai\u2018i. We could not proceed with any action of the IAC if green turtle takes are prohibited under the Endangered Species Act.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, he added, \u201cEven as a hypothetical situation, if there was an action under the ESA to allow for green sea turtle take, that does not automatically mean that the federal government would put forward a request under the IAC \u2013 primarily because we could only proceed [at the IAC] because of economic subsistence, and not cultural take.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simonds then asked, \u201cIf our honu was removed from the threatened list, then where would we be in terms of IAC and management of turtles?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf there was a change under the ESA,\u201d Hogan replied, \u201cthe IAC would still remain as it is right now with regard to the international obligation of the United States to prohibit the direct take of sea turtles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any petition from Hawai\u2018i stakeholders to seek an exception would need to show that it was for purposes of economic subsistence, but even then, Hogan said, the federal government \u201cmight not move the petition forward because there might be little chance of success … since it would contradict the position we took in negotiations and what we told the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simonds persisted. \u201cIf it was taken off the threatened list … the United States could take it on if it wanted to. Because we have our own population. The honu is a distinct population segment. They don\u2019t go anywhere else. They stay here. You\u2019ve answered my question, but it\u2019s not what I wanted to hear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, Simonds said, at the time the\u00a0treaty was subject to ratification, \u201cthe\u00a0U.S. could have actually gone in and maybe did some exceptions, right? They could have actually not agreed to the whole thing, or what? What would\u2019ve helped us \u2013 or nothing \u2013 when the Senate\u00a0ratified the convention?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen the Senate provides advice and consent,\u201d Hogan replied, \u201cthe agreement is limited at that moment. It would be very rare that the United States would decline to ratify an agreement and go back and reopen things. In this case, we were the initiators of the convention. We pressed very hard to negotiate it.\u00a0The outcome was one that satisfied our\u00a0political and international relations at the time, which exported our bycatch reduction policies, particularly for bycatch trawling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tosatto, the regional NMFS admin- istrator, weighed in. \u201cThe status of the honu in Hawai\u2018i, being threatened, is different from the status in Guam and the CNMI. No options are there even to pursue a take under section 4D.\u201d (Section 4D of the Endangered Species Act allows some take of threatened species so long as it does not interfere with its survival and recovery. While green sea turtles are listed as threatened in Hawai\u2018i, they are listed as endangered in Guam and the Mariana Islands.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the IAC, exceptions are granted when necessary for economic subsistence, and, Tosatto added, \u201cthis is a very high bar, because they have not been consumed for a number of years.\u201d Communities in Hawai\u2018i are looking \u201cfor a more cultural use that\u2019s not one of economic subsistence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sakoda noted that there seems to be \u201cgrowing recognition of indigenous rights at the international level. Is there a process to renegotiate the terms of the IAC to include cultural take?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnything is possible,\u201d Hogan replied, but this would require renegotiating the treaty, \u201cand that would also allow other parties to introduce provisions that we may not like. … We would also have to have ratification by all of the existing parties. So it\u2019s not necessarily something we could undertake easily or lightly, even if there was an interest in doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In any case, he added, \u201cthat would be proscribed so long as there is the Endangered Species Act prohibition on direct take.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the discouraging message from Hogan, the council approved a motion directing its staff to \u201csend a letter requesting the Biden administration pursue an avenue to recognize indigenous cultural harvest of Hawai\u2018i green turtles within the IAC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, at French Frigate Shoals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The beaches of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands \u2013 primarily those at the French Frigate Shoals \u2013 are critical nesting grounds for the Hawaiian green sea turtle. Most years, the National Marine\u00a0Fisheries Service\u2019s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center conducts surveys at FFS to see how the turtles and monk seals are doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report that PIFSC prepared for the December council meeting indicated that the turtle count in 2021 exceeded censuses in recent years. \u201cThe Lalo [French Frigate Shoals] turtle team identified more than 1,000 individual turtles\u00a0on Tern Island, including 679 females. The average number of females on Tern Island was only 254 over the past three seasons,\u201d the report noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mike Seki, head of PIFSC, noted during the meeting of the council\u2019s Scientific and Statistical Committee that\u00a0the increases \u201care not as robust as what we\u2019ve seen in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PIFSC report mentioned challenges to turtle recovery at Tern Island. \u201cAcross the atoll, East Island still recovers after being washed away by Hurricane Walaka in 2018,\u201d it stated. In addition, \u201caging infrastructure from World War II often poses entrapment threats to wildlife.\u201d In 2021, the PIFSC team \u201cdocumented 344 turtles, 2 [monk] seals, and 10 seabirds that were entrapped or otherwise unable to get back to the ocean, and released 329 turtles, 1 seal, and all 10 seabirds (11 turtles and 1 seal got out on their own and 4 turtles died).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seki also mentioned marine debris, which can entangle wildlife. \u201cWe just had a marine debris team up there,\u201d he said. \u201cThe amount of debris \u2013 it\u2019s a real eye-opener.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Chemical Threat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Were the threat from potential cultural takes, loss of habitat, entrapment, and marine debris not enough for the sea turtles, last year scientists revealed yet another post-industrial challenge:\u00a0PFASs, or perfluorinated alkyl substances. (The study, \u201cSea turtles across\u00a0the North Pacific are exposed to perfluoroalkyl substances,\u201d was published\u00a0last year in the journal\u00a0Environmental Pollution.\u00a0<\/em>The research was led by the lab of Jennifer M. Lynch of Hawai\u2018i\u00a0Pacific University\u2019s Center for Marine\u00a0Debris Research.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n PFASs make up a family of chemicals that have been, since the 1950s, in widespread use in a number of consumer products and industrial processes. They are \u201cnearly non-biodegradable,\u201d the authors write, being formed by strong\u00a0chains of fluorinated carbons. This bond\u00a0\u201cis incredibly stable, which gives PFASs extreme persistence and both hydrophobic and lipophobic properties\u201d \u2013 that is, they are not soluble in either water or oil. One widely used application for PFASs\u00a0is in foams used to fight fires at military\u00a0bases and airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PFASs are known to have toxic effects in wildlife and humans, and starting in 2001, manufacturers in the United States began phasing out their production. Effects on reptiles are not known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reviewing concentrations of PFASs in eggs and turtle plasma from samples obtained in Hawai\u2018i, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palmyra Atoll, the authors determined that offloading of PFASs from female materials to eggs is strongest in the first clutch of the season and that \u201cegg concentrations were highest in nests laid nearest international airports.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They hypothesize also that the higher concentrations found in hawksbill turtles are a result of their feeding higher in the food chain than green turtles. In addition, two contaminants of the particular PFASs chemicals \u2013 PFUnA and PFTriA \u2013 \u201cwere related to reduced emergence success of hatchlings.\u201d These levels in hawksbill eggs \u201care concerningly near concentrations causing developmental toxicity in birds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The study considered also whether concentrations of PFASs might be connected to fibropapilloma disease among\u00a0green turtles. However, they concluded, \u201c[p]revalence and severity of FP did not relate to PFAS concentrations, so the search continues for environmental stressors that may contribute to this viral disease.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Patricia Tummons<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For years, the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council has sought to obtain permission from the federal government to authorize the killing of green sea turtles (honu, in Hawaiian) for cultural purposes. The turtles around the Hawaiian archipelago are classified as a Distinct Population … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,8,492],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-14165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-endangered-species","category-fisheries","category-january-2022","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}