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Broward County plans to set up small experimental beaches of ground-up glass bottles. The county will spend $570,000 in county and state funds to establish and study two plots of ground glass along the southern Broward shore. State environmental regulators are concerned about the potential impact on shorebirds and sea turtle nests. The county is still discussing with the state how to conduct the experiment. Plans call for two plots 20 feet wide, 10 feet long and four feet deep. County officials will look at factors likely to affect sea turtle nests, such as temperature, gas exchange and moisture. Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 22 May 2004.

The discovery of 125 dead sea turtles snared in an underwater net will be investigated to find out who was responsible, Mexican environmental prosecutors announced July 21. The grisly discovery off the southern Pacific coast of Oaxaca state was reported to federal authorities by the Mexican Turtle Center on July 19. The adult turtles were found in an advanced stage of decomposition. Mexico’s top environmental prosecutor, Jose Luis Luege, cited the need for better regulations to guard protected species from harmful fishing practices, in a written statement released this week. Luege said his office would continue talks with the fishing industry to discourage the placement of nets close to shore where turtles are prevalent. Laws designed to protect sea turtles in Mexico were first approved in 1988, and they were tightened last year. Source: Associated Press, 23 July.

State and federal authorities confiscated the entire catch of a shrimp boat that wasn’t complying with initiatives to protect sea turtles. About two tons of shrimp were seized after agents with the US Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration boarded the 77-foot commercial trawler to inspect its shrimp net. Miss Coral J had no turtle excluder device when authorities boarded it about five miles off the coast of St. Simons Island. A young loggerhead sea turtle was found struggling inside the net and was released. The boat’s catch will be sold at a fair market value and proceeds will go to the NOAA. Source: Associated Press, 22 May 2004.

A coalition of environmental groups took legal action May 13 against the proposed development of a large resort in Puerto Rico -- which they said would destroy crucial habitat for endangered species, including the leatherback and hawksbill sea turtles. The National Wildlife Federation and seven Puerto Rican groups filed suit against the Fish and Wildlife Service. The groups said FWS’s biological opinion that favored the development was based on insufficient scientific data to estimate the effect the tourism would have on the area, particularly for the sea turtles. At issue is a proposed Four Seasons’ San Miguel Resort on Puerto Rico’s northeastern ecological corridor (NEC). The 1,263-acre resort would include a golf course, hundreds of hotel rooms and condos, over 1,000 single and multifamily units, a tennis center and a water sports center. Last year, the Puerto Rican Department of Natural and Environmental Resources recorded nearly 400 leatherback nests and estimated as many as 30 hawksbill nests were on NEC beaches. Source: Greenwire, 14 May 2004.

New regulations that go into effect in June will change where Virginia scallopers fish. The New England Fishery Management Council, which regulates a commercial fishing area from Maine to North Carolina, is banning scalloping in a 1,575-square-mile area off the Maryland and Delaware coasts. The change will force some state scallop boats farther north, into New Jersey and New England. Closing the fishing area, named the Elephant Trunk fishing grounds, will let more young scallops survive. The goal is to improve the stock for fishermen when the area reopens in roughly three years, said Andrew Applegate, senior biologist with the management council. New regulations also are changing gear requirements. The alterations are designed to let more young scallops escape fishermen, who use a dredging-style method. One environmental group, named Oceana, argued that the new regulations don’t go far enough. The group filed a lawsuit earlier this month, saying the new regulations don’t adequately prevent sea turtles from getting caught or killed by scallop dredges. Source: Associated Press, 31 May 2004.

The recently released Preliminary Report of the US Commission on Ocean Policy fails to address the conservation needs of threatened and endangered sea turtles. Marine scientists and conservation groups are shocked that the 400-page report ignores sea turtles and the increasing threats to their survival. The report is open for public comment by the nation’s governors and interested stakeholders until June 4, 2004. After reviewing public comments, the Commission will submit to President Bush and Congress formal recommendations for a new, comprehensive national ocean policy. According to Florida-based Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), sea turtles would be ignored into extinction if the nation’s ocean policies are based solely on this preliminary report. Source: CCC press release, June 1 2004.

Fiberglass sharks might help to scare endangered sea turtles away from long-line fish hooks as part of a drive to protect the world’s migratory species. In a booklet focused on turtles and long-line fishing on how to protect the marine creatures that marks the 25th anniversary of the Convention on Migratory Species agreed in Bonn on June 23, 1979, UNEP recommends the use of hooks shaped like a “G” rather than the more usual “J,” saying they are harder for turtles to swallow. Hooks should be at depths of at least 40 meters. Other deterrents being researched include placing fiberglass sharks near fishing lines to frighten turtles away, and the use of acoustic signals or blue dye to make bait less attractive, it said. Source: Reuters, 22 June 2004.

New rules on the hooks longline fishermen can use do not go far enough to protect endangered sea turtles from injury and death, an ocean watchdog group said. After three years of research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has ruled that longline fishermen in the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico need to use circle-shaped hooks rather than J-shaped ones. While circle hooks are an improvement over the old ones, watchdog group Oceana is blasting the agency for not requiring the use of a bigger-sized circle hook by all American boats. Charlotte Hudson, a marine wildlife scientist with Oceana, said the agency initially proposed using the bigger hooks in February and that it is now reversing its policy and buckling under pressure. NOAA officials acknowledged that concerns from fishermen influenced the decision to require the smaller hooks in most areas, but said that scrapping the J hooks will do much to save sea turtles. Source: Associated Press, 4 July 2004.

About 6,000 pounds of shrimp went on the market July29, but the vessel that caught the shrimp will not see a dime from their sale. U.S. Coast Guard officials seized the shrimp that had been caught by a boat that was not using federally mandated devices on its nets to prevent the capture and death of sea turtles. The Capt. Tony, a 77-foot commercial fishing boat based in Palacios, was in the Gulf of Mexico about 90 miles southeast of Galveston when a law enforcement team from a Coast Guard cutter boarded it at noon Tuesday. The team discovered that turtle excluder devices on the boat’s shrimp nets had been sewn shut, a violation of federal law, the Coast Guard said. Source: Galveston County Daily News, 30 July 2004.

The U.S.-Chile fisheries talks wrapped up in Juneau on July 29 with new bilateral agreements on marine management, research and enforcement. The Chilean and U.S. delegation leaders signed a renewed memorandum of understanding at the Federal Building that will guide their consultations for the next 10 years. Among the agreements: additional research will be done on leatherback and loggerhead stocks, which have been impacted by the swordfish long-line fishery in Chile; the nations will implement and research methods to prevent and reduce turtle mortality in long-line operations. Source: Juneau Empire, 30 July 2004.

Malaysia’s marine police arrested 16 Chinese fishers for suspected poaching after discovering about 160 dead endangered sea turtles aboard a trawler. A patrol boat intercepted the suspects in a rich Malaysian fishing ground in the South China Sea off the northeast coast of Borneo island, a fisheries department spokesman in Sabah state said on condition of anonymity. The fishers were believed to have poisoned the waters with cyanide to catch the turtles, destined to be sold for decorative ornaments. The poachers, who were from China’s southern island province of Hainan, will be charged with illegally entering Malaysian waters and catching endangered species. Source: Associated Press, 5 May 2004.

Greece’s endangered turtles are among the first losers at this summer’s Olympics as funding cuts have left nesting beaches at the mercy of uncontrolled tourism, environmental groups said. The withdrawal of state funding to a marine park set aside for the turtles has left international volunteers in a pitch battle with tourism operators, conservationists said. Staff at the National Marine Park on the island of Zakynthos stopped work in May after going unpaid for nine months. Greece hosts the largest nesting population of the endangered Mediterranean loggerhead turtles whose hatching cycle coincides with the summer tourism season, and this year with the August 13 to 29 Athens Olympics. One of the beaches has 13 illegal buildings that authorities have failed to demolish. Activists have reported speed boat races in the harbour and tourists swarming onto the beaches. The WWF called on Greece to stop a tourist “free for all” from destroying crucial habitats. Source: Reuters, 30 June 2004.