North Carolina dune buggy advocates try a congressional end run to restore motorized access at Cape Hatteras

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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This image from the NASA Earth Observatory program shows where Hurricane Isabel carved a new channel across Hatteras Island in Sept. 2003.

Measure may get OK from anti-environmental House committee, but is unlikely to pass the Senate

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Fans of motorized beach access in North Carolina are hoping that Congress will overturn a public National Park Service planning process with a bill that would re-open parts of Cape Hatteras National Seashore to dune buggies and other vehicles.

The House Natural Resources Committe, led by anti-environmental Republican extremists, this week will vote on HR 819, a measure that would roll back some restrictions on motorized access at the popular North Carolina beach.

As written, the bill would void a court-approved agreement that protects nesting and baby sea turtles and birds, as well as pedestrians at the seashore. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, Environment, recreation | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Report: Leatherback sea turtles losing ground

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Biologists concerned about drastic Indonesian nesting decline

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A leatherback sea turtle in the sand. Photo courtesy NOAA.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Endangered leatherback sea turtles are losing ground in one of their last Indonesian breeding areas, where biologists have documented a 78 percent decline in nests in the past 27 years.

Leatherbacks are the largest of all marine turtles and the largest living reptile in the world, weighing up to 2,000 pounds and growing to more than six feet in length.

“At least 75 percent of all Leatherback turtles in the western Pacific Ocean hatch from eggs laid on a few beaches in an area known as Bird’s Head Peninsula in Papua Barat-Indonesia,” said Peter Dutton of NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center and one of the researchers who co-authored the paper published this week in Ecosphere. (more…)

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Oceans: NOAA rethinking sea turtle protection measures

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
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One of the biggest impacts to sea turtle populations comes from commercial fishing operations. Photo courtesy NOAA.

New data on bycatch prompts federal fisheries managers to drop requirements for turtle excluder devices

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Federal fisheries managers and biologists continue to grapple with sea turtle conservation — specifically with preventing the bycatch of turtles in commercial fishery operations.

The highly touted turtle excluder devices may not be as effective as hoped in certain types of fishing operations, NOAA biologists said as they announced that they are withdrawing a proposed rule to require turtle excluder devices (TEDs) for skimmer trawls, pusher-head trawls, and wing-net trawls in the southeast shrimp fisheries. (more…)

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Lawsuit targets critical habitat for loggerhead sea turtles

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Endangered species still facing threats from fishing, coastal development

A NOAA map showing the range of loggerhead sea turtles.

A loggerhead sea turtle off the coast of England. Photo courtesy NOAA/Matthew Weeks.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Federal officials aren’t moving fast enough to protect critical habitat for endangered loggerhead sea turtles, according to conservation advocates, who hope to speed up the process with a lawsuit aimed at spurring the National Marine Fisheries Service to act sooner, rather than later.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, critical habitat protection would help safeguard key nesting beaches as well as migratory and feeding areas in the oceans. The designation would also prohibit federal projects that would potentially destroy or harm these areas to ensure the conservation and recovery of imperiled sea turtles. Endangered species that benefit from protected critical habitat are twice as likely to show signs of recovery than those without it. (more…)

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PFCs showing up at near-toxic levels in sea turtles

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Careful study shows near-toxic levels of PFCs building up in five endangered sea turtle species. Photo courtesy NOAA.

Nasty, persistent pollutants are becoming more pervasive in the marine food chain

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Persistent and toxic pollutants are building up the marine food web to the point that they are measurable in sea turtles near levels known to be harmful to other animals.

Researchers  at the Hollings Marine Laboratory and four partner organizations   for the first time measured concentrations of 13 perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) in five endangered species of sea turtles. (more…)

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Pacific Leatherback sea turtles get more protection

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Leatherback sea turtle. PHOTO COURTESY SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES.

Critical habitat designation off Pacific coast protects feeding grounds

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The U.S. took a huge step toward protecting endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtles last week by finalizing a critical habitat designation for 40,000 square miles ocean off the shores Washington, Oregon and California.

The designation protects areas where leatherbacks feed on  jellyfish after swimming 6,000 miles across the ocean from nests in Indonesia. Leatherbacks are the most migratory and wide ranging of sea turtle species. They are also the largest of all sea turtles, growing  up to nine feet long and weighing up to 2,000 pounds.

The critical habitat designation is the first permanent safe haven for leatherbacks designated in continental U.S. waters and the largest area set aside to protect sea turtle habitat in the United States or its territories.

Pacific leatherback populations have declined by as much as 80 percent just in the past few decades. Threats include direct harvesting of turtles and eggs and incidental capture in fishing gear. As few as 2,300 adult female western Pacific leatherbacks remain. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, endangered species, Environment, federal government, Marine biology, Summit County news, wildlife | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Environment: Spike in sea turtle deaths prompts lawsuit

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

A hawksbill turtle swimming in the Caribbean. PHOTO COURTESY NOAA.

Conservation groups seek more protection for endangered sea creatures

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — With sea turtle deaths in the Gulf of Mexico and the southern Atlantic spiking to levels not seen in recent decades, conservation groups last week filed a legal complaint that would force the National Marine Fisheries Service to strengthen protection for the endangered turtles.

The fisheries Service has linked these “strandings” to drowning in shrimp fishing nets. Despite this rise in sea turtle strandings and the devastating impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, the conservation groups say the agency has not fulfilled its duty to protect the imperiled animals from harm.

Recent federal reports show the number of drownings in the Gulf alone likely exceeds the allowable take for the Gulf and Atlantic shrimp fisheries combined, and also indicate significant noncompliance with existing regulations. The lawsuit aims to force the fisheries service to complete the required studies and adopt interim measures to protect turtles. (more…)

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Biodiversity: Sea turtles get some help from a federal court

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

A loggerhead turtle hatchling heads toward the sea. PHOTO COURTESY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE.

Ruling will require federal fishery managers to look at cumulative impacts before setting new rules

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Federal officials will have to go back to the drawing board to consider new long-line fishing regulations that better protect loggerhead sea turtles from longline fishing impacts. Longline fishing catches large numbers of non-target animals, including turtles.

In a big win for environmental groups, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the law when it failed to consider a reasonable range of options to protect the turtles, and when it refused to take a fresh look at the fishery’s impact on sea turtles after last year’s massive Gulf oil spill.

“The court confirmed that NMFS’s decision … violates the law and threatens to push this already declining species closer to the brink,” said Andrea Treece, staff attorney with Earthjustice. “This fishery affects one of the world’s most important loggerhead nesting populations and some of the most critical feeding areas for these turtles. If this iconic species is ever to recover, NMFS must offer them real protection — not trap their feeding grounds with hooks and tangling lines.”

“This court ruling is an important victory because it will require NMFS to examine the cumulative impacts of the oil spill, habitat loss and other sea turtle threats before deciding whether to permit this highly destructive Gulf longline fishery to continue killing so many turtles each and every year,” said David Godfrey, executive director of Florida-based Sea Turtle Conservancy. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, BP Gulf oil spill, endangered species, Environment, federal government, Marine biology, wildlife | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Oil spill: Did politics trump science in the response?

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

Greenpeace posts huge volume of documents obtained by FOIA; some emails suggest that certain response measures were not scientifically sound

One of the emails describing NOAA efforts to understand the impacts of the oil spill response on endangered sea turtles.

A Kemp's Ridley turtle is returned to the Gulf for release off Cedar Key, Florida, following rehabilitation from oil exposure resulting from the Deepwater Horizon/BP spill. PHOTO COURTESY NOAA.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — As oil gushed from BP’s ruined Deepwater Horizon drilling operation last summer, federal officials hastily approved all sorts of emergency measures, including major dredging projects aimed at protecting low-lying coastal areas and beaches with sand berms.

But a chain of emails among various federal officials obtained by Greenpeace under a Freedom of Information Act request indicate concern about an “extraordinarily high” level of sea turtle mortality and suggests that approval of the dredging was rushed, taking place even before the head of NOAA’s sea turtle program had a chance to review the plans.

The approval may have been a politically motivated decision, according to Barbara Schroeder, sea turtle coordinator for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service:

“This is insult to injury for a politically forced berm project that all experts say will fail and is ecologically unsound,” Schroeder wrote in a July 10 email to other NOAA officials. (more…)

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Oil spill: 700 sea turtle nests to be relocated

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Bob Berwyn

A mature loggerhead sea turtle swimming in the Atlantic. PHOTO COURTESY WIKIMEDIA, VIA THE CREATIVE COMMONS.

Most hatchlings would die without the move, marine wildlife experts say; watch a NASA timelapse video of the spreading oil spill at the end of this story

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Federal and state wildlife officials in Florida said they will take the unprecedented step of moving 700 sea turtle nests to try and protect hatchlings from the Gulf oil spill and associated beach clean-up actions. The sea turtle eggs will be incubated and then released on Florida’s Atlantic coast.

Without the emergency plan, marine biologists say all of  all of this year’s Northern Gulf of Mexico hatchlings would probably die. All six sea turtle species found in U.S. waters are on the endangered species list.

“Permitted nest surveyors have been in the field locating and marking nests daily since the start of the nesting season,” said Sandy MacPherson, national sea turtle coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “Data on the nest location and the date deposited are being closely tracked. This allows us certainty in timing the nest collection phase of the plan.”

The idea is to collect and move the eggs at a point during the incubation cycle when they’re least susceptible to disturbance. Once collected, the nests will be packed in specially prepared Styrofoam boxes and transported to a secure, climate-controlled location on the east central coast of Florida where they will remain until incubation is complete. (more…)

Filed under: BP Gulf oil spill, Environment, Marine biology, Summit County Colorado | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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