Federal agencies propose to list green sea turtle as endangered

As part of an oceans-ranging proposed rule, federal fishery agencies say the green sea turtle in the CNMI is “endangered.”

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service published in the Federal Register on Monday a proposed rule that would redefine the current listing into 11 distinct population segments, or DPSs.

The Endangered Species Act currently lists these turtles as threatened. But under the proposed rule, the Services find that eight of these population segments qualify as threatened, and three as endangered.

The Services propose endangered DPSs to include the Mediterranean, Central West Pacific, and Central South Pacific.

The CNMI falls in the CWP with Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Guam, and a portion of Japan.

According to a CNMI Department of Land and Natural Resource Sea Turtle program update last year, 660 green turtles have been hand-captured, tagged, and released on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota waters since 2005.

‘Increasing threats’

In the Central West Pacific, the Services have found low nesting levels throughout the area’s 51 nesting sites.

Only two populations are known to have greater than 1,000 nesting turtles, the Services said, for a total of 6,500 nesting females.

Citing research, the Services said historical baseline nesting information is generally not widely available in the region, but exploitation and trade of green turtles are well known.

The Services said in-water green turtle density in the Marianas is “low and mostly restricted to juveniles,” noting that insufficient information suggests “unknown trends” in the Marianas and other areas.

Pointing to coastal development in the region, the Services wrote that construction in CNMI islands is “occurring at a rapid rate…and is resulting in loss or degradation” of green turtle nesting habitats.

“Also in the CNMI, the majority of the nesting beaches on Tinian are military leased land, where the potential for construction impact exists. Increased public use of nesting beaches is a threat to” sea turtles in the CNMI, they said, citing impacts from commercial activities as well.

The Services noted degradation of sea grass habitats by hotels, golf courses, and general tourist areas on Saipan.

They pointed to the “ongoing harvest of nesting adults” that has been documented in the CNMI and other islands in the region.

According to the DLNR turtle program, a total of 47 green turtles have nested on Saipan monitored beaches since 2006. Of these, 36 percent were permanently removed from the nesting population by directed take or illegal hunting.

The Services wrote of the “increasing threat” of erosion in CNMI’s beaches and suggested that incidental bycatch can occur from the “numerous subsistence and small-scale” commercial fishing on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.

The Services called existing regulatory mechanisms in the region “insufficient” or not implemented effectively.

“For the above reasons, we propose to list the Central West Pacific DPS as endangered. Based on its low nesting abundance and exposure to increasing threats, we find that this DPS is presently in danger of extinction throughout its range,” the Services wrote.

A 90-day comment period on these proposed changes have been opened since Monday.