Turtles Archives - Page 4 of 10

Plastic measures: Report lays out dangers plastics pose to marine life

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.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

CALIFORNIA: CDFW Works with Commercial Dungeness Crab Industry and Environmental Community to Implement New Regulations to Protect Whales from Entanglement

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.

Read the full release here

Louisiana to help pay for devices that can save sea turtles from shrimp nets

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.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

Louisiana helps inshore shrimpers buy turtle escape hatches

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.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Atlantic scallop fishers object to ongoing sea turtle litigation

October 7, 2020 — Atlantic scallop fishermen in the Northeast U.S. are objecting to the latest ruling in a long string of litigation regarding the fishery’s responsibility to protect endangered sea turtle species.

A recent court ruling determined that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS) needs to revise the method it uses for its incidental take statements. The scallop fishery, however, asserts that it has already taken steps to protect sea turtles, and that the litigation is unnecessary.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Federal court ruling requires NMFS to improve sea turtle monitoring in Atlantic scallop fishery

October 6, 2020 — A federal court has ruled in favor of an Oceana challenge to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) rules regarding the incidental take of endangered sea turtles in the U.S. Atlantic scallop fishery, siding with the nonprofit in its assertion that the rules are inadequate.

The ruling, according to Oceana, is the latest in a “decades-long effort” by the nonprofit to ensure the scallop fishery “minimizes its harmful impacts on sea turtles.” The ruling will require the NMFS to revise its incidental take statement (ITS) to either more thoroughly explain the surrogate information, or revise its selections.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Loggerhead Turtles Record a Passing Hurricane

September 1, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In early June 2011, NOAA Fisheries researchers and colleagues placed satellite tags on 26 loggerhead sea turtles in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. The tagging was part of ongoing studies of loggerhead movements and behavior. The Mid-Atlantic Bight, off the U.S. East Coast, is the coastal region from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to southern Massachusetts. A little more than 2 months later, on August 28, Hurricane Irene passed through the area, putting 18 of the tagged turtles in its direct path. The researchers were able to track changes in the turtles’ behavior coinciding with the hurricane, and found that they reacted in various ways.

“Hurricanes are some of the most intense weather events loggerheads in the mid-Atlantic experience, and we thought it was worth investigating how turtles in our dataset may be influenced by these dramatic environmental changes,” said Leah Crowe, a contract field biologist at the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and lead author of the study published recently in Movement Ecology. “It was a perfect storm situation in terms of location, timing, and oceanographic conditions. We found that the turtles responded to the changes in their habitat in different ways.”

Satellite tags attached to a turtle’s carapace, or shell, transmitted the turtles’ location and dive behavior. They also recorded sea-surface temperatures and temperature-depth profiles for approximately 13 months. This enabled the researchers to investigate the movements of 18 juvenile and adult-sized loggerhead turtles and associated oceanographic conditions as the hurricane moved through the region.

Most of the turtles moved northward during the hurricane, aligning themselves with the surface currents — perhaps to conserve energy. Researchers observed longer dive durations after the hurricane for turtles that stayed in their pre-storm foraging areas. Some dives lasted an hour or more, compared with less than 30 minutes for a typical dive before the storm.

The turtles that left their foraging areas after the hurricane passed moved south earlier than would be expected, based on their normal seasonal movements. This change was also more than a month earlier than the typical seasonal cooling in the water column, which is also when the foraging season for loggerhead turtles ends in the Mid-Atlantic Bight.

“Loggerheads experience environmental changes in the entire water column from the surface to the bottom, including during extreme weather events,” said Crowe. “This study was an opportunistic look at turtle behavior during a hurricane. Their behavior makes loggerheads good observers of oceanographic conditions where they forage.”

Read the full release here

Habitats for endangered green sea turtles will be federally protected in Florida

August 25, 2020 — Endangered green sea turtles will have some of their nesting beaches in Florida protected by federal agencies under a new legal agreement with conservation groups.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service must designate protected critical habitats for green sea turtles by June 30, 2023, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement this week.

The agencies will likely consider proposing protections for beaches where green turtles nest in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as offshore oceanic habitat in the Southeast and on the West Coast, according to the agreement. These critical habitats designations don’t prohibit development, but they require that any project that’s permitted by a federal agency must minimize harm to these special areas.

“We’re thrilled that these imperiled creatures will finally get the habitat protections required by the Endangered Species Act,” said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Green sea turtle recovery has come a long way, but the fight’s not over yet.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Habitats for endangered green sea turtles will be federally protected in Florida

August 21, 2020 — Endangered green sea turtles will have some of their nesting beaches in Florida protected by federal agencies under a new legal agreement with conservation groups.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

California Takes Step to Protect Leatherback Sea Turtles

August 20, 2020 — California took a step Wednesday toward placing Pacific leatherback sea turtles under state protection as the species faces potential extinction from human-caused problems.

The state Fish and Game Commission voted 5-0 for the species to become a candidate for threatened or endangered status under California’s Endangered Species Act.

That triggers a year-long review before the commission makes a final decision. The turtle will receive state protection during that time.

Conservation groups applauded the move.

“Leatherbacks have traveled across the Pacific for millions of years. California has now committed to ensuring they survive reckless fishing practices and other threats to their existence,” said Catherine Kilduff, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned for the action along with the Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Read the full story at U.S. News