Pacific leaders and environmental advocates have condemned a United States government proposal to advance plans for an offshore mineral lease sale in federal waters off American Samoa.
They say the move – despite about 70,000 public comments submitted during the process opposing offshore mineral extraction – disregards widespread public opposition and threatens the region’s culture, livelihoods and marine environment.
The criticism followed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) announcement that it had issued a Proposed Leasing Notice for the American Samoa Outer Continental Shelf Pacific Mineral Lease Sale 1, a key procedural step toward a potential lease sale currently proposed for 19 November.
Under the proposed process, American Samoa Governor Pulaali’i Nikolao Pula has 60 days to review and comment before BOEM may issue a ‘Final Leasing Notice’.
Dr Sabrina Suluai-Mahuka of Finafinau in American Samoa said the proposal was about more than mineral extraction.
“They can schedule a lease sale. They cannot lease our identity.”
“The moana has never been just a place on a map or minerals beneath the sea floor. The moana is our first teacher, our source of life, and our greatest inheritance,” she added.
Suluai-Mahuka said the ocean should be valued “by the families it feeds, the cultures it sustains, and the children it will one day nourish”,
“Our home is not for sale.”
Maria Hernandez of the Micronesia Climate Change Alliance in Guam said the proposal highlighted broader concerns over representation in the US territories.
“When decisions about our communities’ sacred waters and ecosystems are made in Washington without equal representation, it exposes the undemocratic system imposed across the US territories.”
“Our voices deserve to be heard,” she said.
“The people of the Marianas stand with American Samoa. Hands off our sacred seabed, Prutehi i Mattingan (Chamoru language) translates to “protect the deep waters just beyond the reef”
Adi Martinez Roman of Right to Democracy in Puerto Rico called the proposal “a disappointing step in the wrong direction”.
“For the people of the US territories, the ocean is more than a resource to be extracted. It is a sacred ocean space that connects us to our culture, identity, and future,” Roman said.
He added communities were calling for “stewardship and self-determination” instead of unilateral federal action.
Friends of the Mariana Trench chair Sheila Babauta said Pacific Islanders had consistently opposed offshore mineral extraction.
“Communities across the Pacific have made their voices clear: our ocean is not for sale.”
She said the proposal prioritised “the interests of an extractive industry ahead of the people who depend on the ocean for our culture, livelihoods, and way of life”, urging broader support for Pacific communities seeking “a different vision for our future, one rooted in stewardship, community leadership, and respect for the places that sustain us”.
Angelo Villagomez of the Center for American Progress said opposition extended beyond the Pacific.
“This proposal is out of step with what communities actually want.”
He said Americans increasingly recognised “our ocean is too important to gamble with for an industry that carries significant environmental risks”, and urged BOEM to listen to Pacific communities rather than advance a proposal “that lacks broad public support.”
A strategic asset
BOEM, through the Marine Minerals Administration (MMA), said the Proposed Leasing Notice advances the federal leasing process for offshore critical minerals while supporting domestic supply chains and national security.
Acting MMA director Matt Giacona said “critical minerals have become a strategic asset in global competition, and China’s dominance in the supply of many of these materials creates unacceptable risks for America’s energy, defense and manufacturing sectors.”
He said the proposal would also require any successful lessee to make “every reasonable effort” to hire American Samoans, use businesses in American Samoa and make use of the Port of Pago Pago.
BOEM said issuing the Proposed Leasing Notice does not guarantee that a lease sale will be held or that any exploration or collection activities will ultimately occur.
Instead, the notice allows the remaining pre-sale requirements to proceed, including publication of a Final Leasing Notice at least 30 days before any sale should the agency decide to move forward.
BOEM also said it had completed an environmental assessment examining the potential impacts of issuing two commercial leases in federal waters off American Samoa.
