October 20, 2026
Federal auction scheduled for November 19 would offer two deep-sea mineral lease areas covering more than 31 million acres off American Samoa.
A Samoan council of traditional chiefs and two community organizations have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a planned offshore mineral lease sale near American Samoa, challenging the federal government’s authority to proceed and its compliance with applicable legal requirements.
Filed October 19, the lawsuit targets the final leasing notice issued by the Marine Minerals Administration (MMA) for Lease Sale PACM-1, scheduled for November 19. The proposed auction would offer two areas of the Outer Continental Shelf covering more than 31 million acres.
The plaintiffs are Faleula o le Manu‘atele, a council of traditional chiefs from American Samoa’s Manu‘a Islands; Fa‘asao Amerika Samoa; and the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i. Earthjustice represents the groups.
The plaintiffs ask a federal court to declare the sale unlawful and overturn the final leasing notice. They argue that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act does not authorize the proposed mineral leasing in U.S. territories and that the government has failed to satisfy applicable treaty requirements and its own leasing regulations. These claims remain allegations and have not been resolved by the court.
Separate lawsuit challenges endangered-species review.
The new case follows a lawsuit filed August 18 by Fa‘asao Amerika Samoa and the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and other federal defendants.
NMFS is a separate federal agency responsible for the endangered-species determination at issue in that case. The lawsuit challenges its conclusion that the proposed leasing and preliminary activities were not likely to adversely affect protected species. The plaintiffs contend that the federal review did not adequately address potential risks to endangered marine life.
The case, Fa‘asao Amerika Samoa et al. v. National Marine Fisheries Service et al., is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii under case number 1:26-cv-00438.
The latest publicly available docket listing reviewed for this report shows that on October 16, the court granted the federal defendants and plaintiffs additional briefing space. A scheduling conference was continued to December 8, 2026. No final ruling was listed in that docket snapshot.
The two lawsuits raise distinct issues. The October case challenges the legal basis for MMA’s proposed lease sale, while the August case focuses on NMFS’s endangered-species determination and the associated environmental review.
Environmental concerns and federal review.
Deep-sea mineral development can disturb seafloor habitats, generate sediment plumes and create underwater noise. The potential consequences for marine wildlife and fisheries depend on the location, methods and scale of future activities.
MMA has completed an environmental assessment for the proposed leasing and preliminary activities and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact. That finding applies to the action analyzed in the assessment; it is not blanket approval for commercial extraction.
MMA says a winning bid and lease would initially authorize only preliminary activities, such as mapping. Further regulatory steps and approvals would be required before physical exploration, testing or commercial harvesting could proceed.
Federal auction remains scheduled.
MMA announced the final leasing notice on October 19. The notice was scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on October 20, and the auction remains scheduled for November 19, 2026.
As of October 20, no court order blocking the auction had been identified in the public docket records reviewed for this report.
The cases put federal mineral-leasing authority, treaty-related obligations, marine conservation and the interests of American Samoa’s communities at the center of a dispute over the future of Pacific waters.
