Officials clear up rules on turtles that led to standoff at memorial

The honu hubbub at the USS Arizona Memorial has been resolved.

The famed sunken battleship, a grave for most of the ship’s 1,177 crew members killed on Dec. 7, 1941, was deemed a no-go when the Navy detachment piloting launches to the memorial’s floating dock noticed threatened green sea turtles nibbling on algae near the boat landing, officials said.

The memorial was closed parts of four days in late July and early August, resulting in about 7,000 people not being able to set foot on it. The turtle standoff ended up making national news.

As it turns out, some confusion over the Endangered Species Act may have been to blame.

“We’re still seeing turtles around,” said Abby Wines, a National Park Service spokeswoman. But Irene Kelly, the Oahu-based sea turtle recovery coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, spoke with the Navy detachment “and gave them much clearer guidance as to just how close they can get to the turtles,” Wines said.

“In this context, we were told that the boats can slowly approach the turtle,” Wines said, adding the boats run slowly anyway since they are docking at the memorial over the Arizona. “So the boats can slowly approach the dock, and the turtle should submerge or move out of the way, and that’s what’s been happening.”

One and sometimes two sea turtles were spotted near the floating dock, Wines said. Kelly said she’s not surprised.

“There’s algae. So if you look (underwater) at the dock and the memorial now, it’s been underwater for how long? Seventy-plus years. And so it’s got a habitat now growing,” Kelly said. She added that “it seems to be a productive and healthy habitat, and turtles are taking advantage of that.”

The green sea turtle is threatened and protected and falls under the Endangered Species Act, but there are no standoff provisions, Kelly said. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources said in 2014 that although federal and state conservation laws differ, all prohibit disturbing or harming sea turtles without a permit. Touching a turtle is considered disturbance and is illegal, the DLNR said.

Turtles have always been found in the vicinity of the Arizona Memorial, and the green sea turtle population has been increasing about 5 percent a year within the Hawaiian archipelago, Kelly said.

“As we see the population growing, we’re going to see more and more turtles everywhere,” she said.