Pasifika environmentalists are taking court action against the Trump administration over its plans to deep-sea mine in American Samoa territorial waters.
Fa'asao Amerika Samoa, a community organisation focused on protecting Samoan culture, traditions, ocean and natural resources, has joined the Conservation Council for Hawai'i in filing a lawsuit to challenge the assessment of potential risks to marine life from the proposed mining.
Washington is proposing to lease more than 125 million square metres of seabed that engulf the 200-square kilometre islands of American Samoa.
The lease scheduled to be announced on November 19 would run for 20 years, but may be extended further should mining proceed.
According to Earthjustice, the US nonprofit environmental law organisation representing the two plaintiffs, the US has never opened its waters to deep-sea mining before under its Endangered Species Act.
The lawsuit is challenging the decision from the National Marine Fisheries Service that its claim on the proposed leasing activity was unlikely to affect threatened or endangered marine species.
The Conservation Council for Hawai'i intervened to ensure the lawsuit can take place in the US District Court of Hawaiʻi, but it also argues seabed mining could affect a much broader Pacific marine ecosystem, including species and ecological systems connected to Hawaiʻi.
Fa'asao Amerika Samoa spokesperson Seumalu Elora Raymond, who says the community pact represents Tangata Samoan fishermen, cultural chiefs, religious leaders, residents and their Samoan diaspora, questioned whether the US marine department had conducted a sufficient risk assessment.
"Many of these endangered species are also really important sacred creatures for the Samoan people like whales and sea turtles and sharks," she told Radio New Zealand.
"These are our creatures of legend and they're all completely going to be affected by deep-sea mining."
Opposition voices have also pointed to the possible continuous release of heavy metal and contaminated sludge into the Pacific Ocean.
A US government spokesperson said the move into seabed mining is part of President Donald Trump's push to access to critical minerals.
The idea of issuing mining leases has faced strong cultural resistance from inside the Tagata Samoan community.
Ms Raymond said the matter has drawn ongoing protests from not only American Samoan residents but also expatriates living in the US.
"When you look at the map of where they are proposing to mine, it is 31 million acres (about 12 million hectares) around Muliāva, but if you look, it stretches all the way around all of our islands and it's much bigger than the entire stretch from Manu'a to Falealupo," she said.
The proposed leases cover the US exclusive economic zone from the eastern parts of the American Samoa Outer Continental Shelf across 167 kilometres to the untouched Manu'a islands and Rose Atoll marine national monument, traditionally known as Muliāva.
The International Seabed Authority has specifically said it has no jurisdiction over the area within US territorial waters.
Republican Governor Pulaali'i Nikolao Pula has asked the US government for "continued dialogue" while requesting that no activity proceed without territorial consent after its public consultation received more than 76,000 submissions.
The next court matter where the US District Court of Hawaiʻi decides how the litigation will proceed is set down for October 19.
