Thriving Oceans

Press Release from Sea Turtle Restoration Project  (Nov. 5, 2009)-

Sea turtle advocates in California and family shrimp fishers from Florida filed a federal lawsuit today against the U. S. State Department for violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for allowing shrimp caught in ways that are deadly to sea turtles to be sold in the United States  The lawsuit filed by the Environmental Law Clinic at Stanford Law School (Palo Alto, CA) on behalf of Turtle Island Restoration Network (Forest Knolls, CA) and the Mayport Village Association (Mayport, FL) claims that the U. S. State Department has failed to properly evaluate and prevent harm to sea turtles from overseas shrimp fleets that sell shrimp to the United States under the ESA’s Turtle-Shrimp Law (Pub. L. 101-162 § 609). It was filed in the U. S. District Court, Northern District of California. See the complaint.

“This is not only a tragedy for sea turtles, which die by the tens of thousands in shrimp nets every year, but is unfair to the U.S. fishers who obey the law and must compete in the U.S. marketplace with shrimp imports,” said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of sea turtles and their habitat.

“Our Mayport shrimpers are struggling to survive, while foreign fleets get a free pass on the law and flood the market with cheap shrimp,” said Al Millar, representing Mayport Village Civic Association and its small fleet of family shrimpers based in the historic village of Mayport, FL. See www.SaveMayportVillage.net. “We work hard to fish and protect sea turtles but don’t get a break from our own government.”

The lawsuit claims that the State Department has not properly enforced requirements for foreign shrimp vessels to use nets with Turtle Excluder Devices as U. S. fishers are required to do. The lawsuit asks that the foreign shrimp certification process be given additional environmental oversight and review. Recently, shrimp imports from Costa Rica were banned due to failure to protect sea turtles after environmentalists’ complaints, but 15 other nations were certified with little, if any, scrutiny.

“There is a simple, inexpensive, and elegant solution that allows sea turtles to escape drowning in shrimp nets, called a turtle excluder device or TED” said Deborah Sivas, Stanford Law professor, and director of the Environmental Law Clinic, who filed the lawsuit.  “If the State Department can create a reasonable certification program, we can save the lives of thousands of endangered sea turtles while allowing shrimp harvesting to continue.”

Americans consume over 500,000 tons of shrimp annually, and is the top fishery import of the United States, valued at over $3.9 billion last year, according to government figures. This includes trawl-caught wild shrimp and farmed shrimp (which does not capture sea turtles but is environmentally harmful due to pollution of fish ponds and land clearing). About 90 percent of shrimp eaten in the U. S. is imported. See latest U. S. shrimp import data.

Background:
The U. S. Turtle-Shrimp Law was challenged by nations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), claiming to be a violation of the “free-trade” agreement, leading to the famous “Battle of Seattle” protests in 1999 where thousands marched peacefully to protest weak environmental protections in the global trade treaty.  The U.S. Turtle-Shrimp Law was eventually found to comply with the WTO, but poor enforcement has allowed sea turtles around the world to drown in shrimp nets and slide toward extinction. (The movie Battle of Seattle starring Woody Harrelson that dramatized the protests was released in 2008). Read more .

On May 1, 2009, the Department of State certified, pursuant to Section 609 of Public Law 101-162 (”Section 609”), that 15 nations have adopted programs to reduce the incidental capture of sea turtles in their shrimp fisheries comparable to the program in effect in the United States. Belize, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Suriname, and Venezuela. The Department also certified that the fishing environments in 24 other countries and one economy, Hong Kong, do not pose a threat of the incidental taking of sea turtles protected under Section 609. Read more. 

A new publication in Conservation Biology is shedding light on the effect of a low population on fertility success in sea turtles.  And unlike other species that experience reduced fertility when population densities drop, green sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, and their conservationists are receiving a bit of good news. 

“We found that there has been no reduction in fertility in small nesting aggregations in either of these species worldwide.”

The well known issue of sea turtle overexploitation has sparked recovery efforts around the globe.  But the lingering question was whether some turtle populations have passed the point of no return and would thus be unable to ultimately avoid extinction.  According to researchers, marine species have had a variable success rate in recuperating from low numbers, which is a product of the biology of the species and human pressures like habitat degradation and harvesting.  However, these latest findings suggest that even populations comprised of very low densities have a chance at recovery (Previous critical density models indicated depensation might occur when populations dipped below 5% of historical numbers).

“Furthermore, there was clearly no pronounced reduction in fertility in either species at low numbers, even in rookeries yielding as few as 10 clutches per year.”

 

“The capacity to maintain functional levels of fertilization success in the face of high levels of exploitation may help in part to explain why total extirpations have been few and recoveries have been possible.  This information does not, however, explain why in some cases recovery has not occurred.”

I guess the biological moral of the story is that even highly reduced populations have an “intrinsic conservation value”, and can provide much needed information in sea turtle biology and aid in global recovery efforts.

BELL, C., BLUMENTHAL, J., BRODERICK, A., & GODLEY, B. (2009). Investigating Potential for Depensation in Marine Turtles: How Low Can You Go? Conservation Biology DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01313.x

TODAY IS A GREAT DAY FOR SEA TURTLES!  Check out the following press release:

NASSAU, Bahamas — The Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources hereby announces that the Fisheries Regulations governing marine turtles have been amended to give full protection to all marine turtles found in Bahamian waters by prohibiting the harvesting, possession, purchase and sale of turtles, their parts and eggs. The new regulations also prohibits the molestation of marine turtle nests.

The regulations will come into effect on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009.

The Government has engaged in intensive and extensive consultations with the public over the issue of the ban on the harvesting and sale of marine turtles for the past twelve months. The commitment to the conservation and preservation of these species while in Bahamian waters has been demonstrated by the introduction of protective measures and safeguards over the past two decades, starting with the actions taken to safeguard the hawksbill turtle in 1986.

An eternity, perhaps not quite, but that’s my perception of time when thinking back to my Hawaiian excursion in mid-June.  And finishing up a home movie chronicling our adventure, complete with contemporary Island music from the likes IZ for instance, just gets me in the mood for some white sandy beaches and clear salty waters.  So why not share a few things I came across while swimming over the reefs of Maui.

Obviously such a post lends itself infinity as the amount of pictures and video I have is substantial… notice I did not mention anything about quality.  But with that said, using a digital underwater camera is  a goldmine for someone who needs to cull through the blurs to find a few gems. 

Of course I need to start the ball rolling with a Hawaiian green sea turtle.  It is by far my wife’s favorite marine creature and I am always left in awe at the range of colors found on their carapace.  By the way, did you see our Hawaiian green sea turtle video footage?  And even in today’s world of rampant conservation information,  I was left in shock to discover people clamoring to touch and harass this amazing species (And yes members of our party spoke up immediately to inform the culprits and end their activities). I guess that’s why we need to continue spreading the word.

Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle

A juvenile yellowtail coris (Coris gaimard), which is the first one I have run across in Hawaii

A raccoon butterflyfish (Chaetodon lunula)

A Slate or Red pencil urchin (Heterocentrotus mammillatus) and a black sea urchin (Echinothrix diadema)

A cushion seastar (Culcita novaeguineae)

Whitemouth moray eel (Gymnothorax meleagris)

An Arc-eye hawkfish (Paracirrhites arcatus)

The Hawaiian Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea) and a female bird wrasse (Gomphosus varius)