Protected sea turtles with a newfound interest in the floating dock for the USS Arizona Memorial have resulted in about 7,000 people not being able to set foot on the memorial since Wednesday, the National Park Service said.
The memorial was closed part of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday due to the presence of apparently foraging sea turtles, said Abby Wines, a memorial spokeswoman.
“Of course, visitors are disappointed when they can’t get out to the memorial for any reason,” Wines said Monday. “However, I think the visitors seemed to think it was at least a cute reason, an interesting reason. Definitely, they seemed to be more understanding than when we’ve had to shut down for other reasons.”
That happened, too, on most of Sunday, when the wind was clocked at 34.5 mph and the Navy, which operates boats that ferry passengers back and forth to the memorial, decided to pull the plug on the short trip, resulting in about 3,000 others not getting out to the memorial, Wines said.
“Turtles have definitely been seen in Pearl Harbor before and around the Arizona Memorial before, but this is the first time they have been staying for an extended period of time right next to the dock,” Wines said.
The green sea turtle is threatened, and the hawksbill sea turtle is endangered, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said in 2014. Although federal and state conservation laws differ, all prohibit disturbing or harming sea turtles without a permit. Even touching turtles is considered disturbance and is illegal, the DLNR said.
The USS Arizona Memorial, a grave for most of the ship’s 1,177 crew members killed Dec. 7, 1941, is the state’s most visited attraction. A maximum of 4,350 people a day set foot on the memorial, which sits astride the sunken battleship.
Most of the time, one turtle has been spotted at the memorial’s floating dock. On Monday there were two, Wines said.
“We’re working with a biologist from (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to try to figure out how we can best strike a compromise between the needs of the turtle and the desires of the people,” she said.
In May the 894-foot hospital ship USNS Mercy caused damage to the Arizona Memorial’s access dock as the big ship was turned in the harbor. NOAA thought that might have had something to do with the new turtle interest in growth on the floating dock, Wines said.
But the dock was always in the water, “so I doubt there was very much disruption to the growth on the bottom and side of it,” she said.
“It doesn’t really make much sense,” Wines said. “The dock didn’t change that much.”
