January 12, 2021 — On Monday 11 January, a group of environmental organizations sent notice to Trump administration officials that the U.S. government is violating the Endangered Species Act, and giving notice they plan to take legal action as a result.
The Endangered Species Act requires a 60-day notice when groups plan to sue.
December 21, 2020 — The number of leatherback turtles that feed in Central California waters has declined by 80% during the last two decades, according to new research out of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.
“They’re at risk of extinction in the Pacific Ocean,” said Scott Benson, lead study author and marine ecologist with NOAA.
Benson and his coauthors tracked Pacific leatherback turtles using video cameras, satellite and aerial survey data from 1990 through 2017.
December 16, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Enormous Pacific leatherback turtles are so ancient they lived with the dinosaurs. Now a new survey shows that leatherbacks that forage off the U.S. West Coast are trending towards extinction in as little as a few decades.
These endangered turtles are the largest living turtles, weighing up to 1,500 pounds. They are fully protected in U.S. waters, likely the safest waters they traverse in their cross-Pacific migrations. After feeding on jellyfish and growing in U.S. waters, adult turtles migrate back west across the Pacific Ocean to beaches in Indonesia and Solomon Islands. That’s where they reproduce and females lay their eggs.
Biologists fear illegal, unregulated, or insufficiently regulated fishing on the high seas may catch and kill many leatherbacks on their year-long treks across the ocean. They also suffer from poaching and loss of habitat in their nesting areas.
“Probably the safest place for Pacific leatherbacks is in the West Coast Exclusive Economic Zone,” said research biologist Scott Benson of NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center. The Exclusive Economic Zone is the area where U.S. laws apply to 200 miles offshore. “It’s what happens in all of the other waters they are swimming through that really worries us.”
Benson is lead author of the new study of western Pacific leatherbacks, one of two populations of leatherback turtles in the Pacific, published last month in Global Ecology and Conservation.
December 8, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
On Monday, December 7, 120 sea turtles flew south thanks to Turtles Fly Too. These sea turtles were found on Cape Cod, Massachusetts beaches suffering from hypothermia and other complications in recent weeks. They will continue to receive treatment and care from seven facilities in Texas.
Of the more than 500 cold-stunned sea turtles that have washed up so far this year, the vast majority are endangered Kemp’s ridleys. Green and loggerhead sea turtles have been rescued, as well. Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary responds to all of these cold-stunned turtles. They transport live turtles to two Massachusetts rehabilitation facilities: the New England Aquarium and the National Marine Life Center.
Sea turtles are cold-blooded and rely on heat from their environment to maintain their body temperatures. When water temperatures drop rapidly, they become lethargic and unable to swim due to the cold. Many of the turtles have pneumonia, and some have other medical conditions or injuries from being washed against rocks. They require expert care—but with so many turtles, the rehabilitation facilities are filling up. And it’s only early December. The cold-stun season usually lasts until late December or early January.
November 30, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Endangered sea turtles rescued from the beaches of Cape Cod, MA, are now in the care of Audubon Nature Institute’s Coastal Wildlife Network (CWN) in New Orleans, LA, after a long but successful journey over the Thanksgiving holiday that required collaboration among several organizations.
For weeks, rescue and rehabilitation efforts have been underway as hundreds of cold-stunned sea turtles wash up on the beaches of Cape Cod, MA, suffering from life-threatening medical conditions that are a result of weeks of hypothermia and the inability to feed brought on by plunging ocean water temperatures. Staff and volunteers with Massachusetts Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary rescue the turtles and take them to the New England Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital and to National Marine Life Center, where they are stabilized before being flown to secondary rehabilitation facilities along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico to continue treatment.
On Wednesday, pilots with Turtles Fly Too were transporting 30 Kemp’s ridley turtles to CWN’s Aquatic Center in New Orleans when they encountered strong headwinds and storms. The severe weather slowed the trip, forcing them twice to refuel and change course to avoid winds. When the pilots tried to take off after a second refueling in Chattanooga, TN, a rock kicked up and damaged the plane’s propeller, requiring repairs that prevented it from flying. Staff from Turtles Fly Too, NOAA Fisheries, and the New England Aquarium began contacting colleagues to find emergency housing for the turtles overnight. The president and CEO of the Tennessee Aquarium mobilized his staff to drive to the airport, pick up the turtles, and bring them to their offsite facility.
“It’s easy to fall in love with sea turtles and appreciate the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to save these endangered animals,” said Keith Sanford, the Tennessee Aquarium’s president and CEO. “Our team was happy to provide assistance to this important rescue and rehabilitation project.”
Veterinarians from the Tennessee Aquarium and New England Aquarium worked together to provide care for the turtles, sharing animal records and performing health exams. While the turtles were kept overnight in Chattanooga, the organizations worked around the clock to create a plan to transport the turtles to their original destination.
November 20, 2020 — More than 60 turtles stranded on Cape Cod beaches have been rescued so far this fall and taken to New England Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in Quincy, as rescue workers face new challenges because of the coronavirus pandemic, the aquarium said Thursday.
At Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, employees and volunteers scour the beaches for turtles stunned by the cold weather, sometimes suffering hypothermia and malnutrition, and take them to the sea turtle hospital, the aquarium said in a statement.
Though the season has just begun, 66 turtles have been treated so far, including Kemp’s ridleys, loggerheads, and leatherbacks, and more are expected in the coming days, the aquarium said.
November 19, 2020 — When Dr. Charles Innis, the lead veterinarian at the New England Aquarium, cut into a 400-pound leatherback sea turtle that had washed up dead on Sandy Neck in November of 2015, he was looking for cause of its demise, signs of disease or parasites.
What the necropsy team encountered was a 3-foot-square sheet of plastic lodged in its stomach.
By any measure, this turtle had experienced the worst that mankind could dish out. Shell deformities and X-rays revealed extensive fractures of the shell and vertebrae from a collision with a vessel. Heavy abrasions and lacerations around the front flippers indicated it had been entangled in fishing gear and that was believed to be the likely cause of death.
But the plastic, which when floating in the water resembles the jellyfish that are the leatherback’s favorite food, would have killed it eventually by blocking its intestine, Innis concluded.
From plastic netting and lines, down to the tiniest nanoplastics that can be eaten by zooplankton and enter the food chain, our seemingly endless seas are choking on plastic, and so are the animals who live there, according to a report released Thursday by the international ocean advocacy nonprofit Oceana.
November 5, 2020 — The following was released by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife:
The commercial Dungeness crab season in the central management area, which was scheduled to open Sunday, Nov. 15, will be delayed due to the presence of whales within fishing grounds and the potential for entanglement. In mid-November, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director will re-assess entanglement risk in the central management area and evaluate risk in the northern management area, which is scheduled to open Tuesday, Dec. 1.
Following increased numbers of large whale entanglements in 2015 and 2016, CDFW worked with the Dungeness crab fleet and partner organizations to develop the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP). After substantial review and input from industry and the environmental community, the RAMP regulations became effective on Nov. 1, 2020. The risk assessment conducted by CDFW this week, in consultation with the Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group, is the first assessment conducted under the new RAMP regulations.
“While no one wants to delay the season, CDFW and the Working Group feel a delay is necessary to reduce the risk of entanglement,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “The fleet has gone to great lengths to be more nimble in order to protect whales and turtles, and the results are promising. This year for the first time in a long time it looks like we don’t have to worry about domoic acid, which is good news.”
In collaboration with Working Group advisors, agencies and other partners, CDFW is committed to collecting real time data regarding presence of Humpback and Blue whales, and Pacific leatherback sea turtles in Dungeness crab fishing grounds. Combined with an improved and consistent process for information sharing and decision making with the Working Group, CDFW is able to provide more certainty to the fleet as to the timing of potential delays and openings. When the whales migrate out of the fishing grounds in coming weeks, CDFW stands ready to open the commercial season.
October 21, 2020 — Louisiana is starting a financial assistance program to help shrimpers buy new gear to make their nets less lethal for endangered sea turtles.
The new $250,000 state program will reimburse up to 60% of the cost for special metal grates known as TEDs, or turtle excluder devices, for shrimping nets used in the Gulf of Mexico. TEDs create an opening that allows trapped turtles to escape nets before they drown.
Starting in April, a federal law will expand TED requirements to include skimmer vessels that are 40 feet long and longer. About 1,500 TEDs will need to be purchased for 400 boats in Louisiana, according to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which will oversee the Skimmer Turtle Excluder Device Reimbursement Program.
October 14, 2020 — Louisiana will help inshore shrimpers buy turtle escape hatches that will be required next year for some boats in the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern Atlantic, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday.
The $250,000 program will pay up to 60% of the cost for two of the grates called “turtle excluder devices,” or TEDs, a news release said. Some of the money comes from BP payments to restore the Gulf after the oil spill in 2010.
Big offshore shrimp trawlers have had to use such devices since late 1989. Protests against that rule included shrimp-boat blockades of Texas and Louisiana ship channels.