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GLOBAL

Prominent Scientists Join Call for UN Moratorium on Longline Fishing
World-renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, Founder of theJane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, has added her voice to 705 international scientists from 83 countries who are urging the UN to implement a moratorium on longline fishing in the Pacific Ocean to prevent the extinction of the critically endangered leatherback sea turtle. The scientists are joined by 230 non-governmental organizations from 54 countries. The list of signers includes biologist E.O. Wilson, oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, and former US astronaut William Harris, M.D. The petitions, originally submitted to the UN in February 2003 with the names of 413 international scientists and 113 NGOs, have not yet received a formal response from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Source: STRP press release, 1 February 2005.

THE AMERICAS

Balazs Receives Prestigious Award
Hawai’i researcher George Balazs has been awarded the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Achievement Award for his work on the threatened Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. Balazs, a biologist with NOAA Fisheries, helped place the turtles on the federal endangered species list in 1978 and has overseen research on the animals throughout his career -- during which the population has recovered significantly. His work with radio-tagging has shown that the turtles can take long open-ocean routes from their feeding sites to nesting areas and that they can navigate hundreds of miles without landmarks. Many of them make those voyages from the main Hawaiian Islands to nesting beaches in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Source: Honolulu Advertiser 13th April 2005.

Sex Shells
Conservationists are teaming up with a Playboy model for a racy new campaign aimed at stopping a Mexican tradition: swallowing raw sea turtle eggs as a sexual aid. “My man doesn’t need to eat turtle eggs,” says one magazine ad, as Argentine model Dorismar unbuttons her shirt for the camera. Behind her, two baby sea turtles scoot along a beach. Other ads show her in a revealing swimsuit, leaning back while superimposed over a turtle nesting ground. “Sea turtle eggs DO NOT increase sexual potency!” the ads exclaim. Mexico’s Environmental Education Fund is sponsoring the program along with San Diego-based Wildcoast. Source: Arizona Republic, 18 April 2005.

Turtle Lawsuit Delay Could Help Volusia
The Justice Department asked a judge to freeze proceedings in a federal sea-turtle lawsuit, sending the message that a federal agency’s opinion on beach driving and sea turtles is more valuable than a federal judge’s. The US Fish and Wildlife Service already sent a strong signal late last month that it considers beach driving and sea turtle nesting to be compatible, which is exactly the opposite of what the lawsuit, filed by New Smyrna Beach homeowners Shirley Reynolds and Robert Godwin, is trying to establish. On Feb. 25 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service announced that it would open a public comment period before it weighs in on Volusia County’s permit, which, if approved, would allow beach driving here for 25 more years. By opening the comment period, the agency indicated that it was close to a decision. The Justice Department wants to know what that decision is before a federal judge hears evidence in a lawsuit. Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal, 4 March 2005.

‘Smart Gear’ Could Protect Turtles
An American living on the south Pacific island of New Caledonia has reeled in a prize of $25,000 to help solve an ocean dilemma. Steve Beverly’s design of new “smart fishing gear” could help stop the accidental deaths of sea turtles that get caught in commercial fishing hooks and nets. The World Wildlife Fund, an international conservation organization, launched the International Smart Gear Competition a year ago. The aim was to get ideas from fishing fleets, environmentalists and scientists to come up with realistic devices to reduce bycatch. Beverly’s design takes into account the specific depths that sea turtles frequent, and contrasts that with the depths where the target species, like tuna, usually thrive. The idea is to weigh down the main line with lead weights, and to put the hooks deeper than about 325 feet. Since turtles are most at risk in much shallower waters, they would be less likely to encounter the hooks. Some early tests of the gear also showed a bigger catch of tuna with the deeper hooks. Source: CNN, 22 April 2005.

Species Status Review Set for Marine Turtles
The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service announced plans to conduct a five-year review of all species of marine turtles nesting on U.S. beaches. The agencies will compile data on the turtles from universities, state and local agencies and the public to determine whether their current categories under the Endangered Species Act are accurate. Loggerhead turtles are considered threatened under federal law, but recent nesting data has shown a drop-off that could, if proven serious enough, cause them to be re-listed as “endangered.” Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal, 23 April 2005.

Costa Rica Passes Long Awaited Fisheries Law
On February 10, 2005 Costa Rican senators unanimously approved a new national fisheries law including a prohibition on shark finning and creates fines and jail terms for those involved in landing shark fins at Costa Rican ports. There are also stiff penalties for anyone who harms endangered sea turtles and the law requires shrimp fishermen to use TEDs, special devices which allow sea turtles to escape from shrimp nets. Source: PRETOMA press release, 11 February 2005.

Turtles Losing To Beach Projects
Next weekend will mark the start of an unprecedented wave of beach renourishments during sea turtle nesting season. Experts who study the endangered species say the project is certain to mean some of the eggs will never hatch. Moving nests, studies show, results in the death of up to one in every dozen eggs. Other nests will be smothered under the new sand because even experienced biologists miss some nests. Beach building during nesting season is so fraught with dangers for sea turtles, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act, that it used to be against the law. Until this year, the percentage of nests relocated in Florida has been very low. In most cases, the rush to rebuild west coast beaches is an effort to beat this year’s hurricane season after the storms of 2004 stripped sand from 950 of the state’s 1,300 miles of coastline. Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 24 April 2005.

ASIA

Rekawa Beach, Sri Lanka’s First Turtle Conservation Sanctuary
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) in coordination with IUCN (World Conservation Union), the Coast Conservation Department and the Turtle Conservation Project will jointly declare the Rekawa beach area as Sri Lanka’s first turtle conservation sanctuary, IUCN’s programme coordinator Dr. Channa Bambaradeniya said. According to IUCN, five species of turtles visit Rekawa beach for nesting purposes. Source: Colombo Page, 7 February 2005.

5,000 Olive Ridley Turtles Perish
The endangered Olive Ridley turtles are battling for survival with at least 5,000 washed ashore dead in Orissa beaches over the last three months and their eggs sold at Chennai shores as a delicacy. Wildlife officials, however, said they have taken adequate steps to ensure low turtle mortality this season. Wildlife conservation group Operation Kachhapa contested this, saying some 1,500 turtles had perished in Gahirmatha. The Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is the world’s largest turtle nesting site where 700,000-800,000 Olive Ridley turtles swim up every winter. Apart from Gahirmatha, Orissa has two other nesting sites of Olive Ridley turtles - the Devi river mouth in Puri and the Rusikulya river mouth in Ganjam. Said an Operation Kachhapa official: “Our survey found about 3,000 dead turtles near the Devi river beach and some near Rusikulya river beach.” Source: Indo-Asian News Service, 9 February 2005.

Rare Marine Turtles near Extinction as Numbers Plummet 80%
Several species of rare marine turtle in the Andaman region are threatened with imminent extinction as a result of the expansion of fishing and tourism operations, a leading marine zoologist has warned. According to Mr. Wannakiart Thapthimsaeng, director of the government’s Institute for Research and Development of Marine and Coastal Resources, turtle numbers off the coast of Phuket have recently plummeted by 80 percent. Describing the situation as a ‘crisis’, he blamed the sharp decline on the destruction by humans of the areas where the turtles laid their eggs. Ironically, the December tsunami helped alleviate the turtles’ plight, by returning traditional egg-laying grounds to the condition they were in two decades ago, with fewer disturbances by tourists and fishing vessels. Source: TNA, 17 April 2005.

72 Arrested for Fishing near Bhubaneswar Turtle Site
At least 72 fishermen have been arrested in Orissa for fishing in a prohibited zone along the nesting site of the famous Olive Ridley turtles. The arrests have been made since November near Gahirmatha in the Bay of Bengal in the coastal district of Kendrapada, 174 km from Bhubaneswar, district wildlife department chief AK Jena said. Source: Indo-Asian News Service, 4 February 2005.

Tsunami-Hit Beach May Become Turtle Haven
Conservationists want to turn a popular Malaysian beach hit by the tsunami into a protected nesting area for endangered sea turtles, which hatched there for the first time in over a decade - probably because of a drop-off in tourists after the disaster. More than 30 baby Olive Ridley turtles were found Feb. 16 crawling on Tanjung Bungah beach, a popular stretch of resorts and seaside condominiums on northwestern Penang island, said Mashhor Mansor, a professor of biological sciences in the Malaysian University of Science. Fisheries officials have since released the hatchlings into the sea. Such turtles take about 45 days to hatch, and scientists estimate that a single mother turtle laid and buried the eggs on the beach several days after the Dec. 26 tsunami. Source: Associated Press, 22 February 2005.

Vietnamese Turtles on the Brink of Extinction
Vietnam is home to 28 species of turtles, including five species of sea turtles, and they are all on the brink of extinction due to illegal hunting, trading and loss of the natural habitat, according to an official of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Douglas Henrie, WCS-Asia co-ordinator raised the alarm at a seminar on strengthening the effectiveness of communication about turtle conservation held in Hanoi. The seminar, jointly held by the Vietnam Forum of Environment Journalists, WCS, the Turtle Conservation Centre and the Vietnam Natural Education Centre, aimed to heighten the role and responsibility of media agencies in sharing and disseminating information and necessary knowledge about turtle preservation among communities. Source: VOV News, 6 March 2005.

Fisheries Department Mulls Ban on Turtle Egg Trade
The Malaysian Fisheries Department may ban the sale and consumption of turtle eggs in the country by 2010. It is looking into incorporating this into the new Turtle Conservation Regulation under the Fisheries Act 1985, which was expected to be ready in two years. The department’s Resource Rehabilitation section head Dr Sukarno Wagimon said the stakeholders would be consulted first. Source: Malaysia Star, 26 April 2005.

Sea Turtle in UAE “Under Threat”
Experts from the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA) said based on aerial surveys undertaken in 2001 and 2004 in Abu Dhabi waters, the foraging sea turtle population predominantly made up of the two species (hawksbill and green turtles), is estimated to be 5,550 turtles. The study said sea turtles in the UAE also face indirect threats in the form of damage to their foraging and nesting habitats including gill netting, boating, coastal development (settlement, fencing, sea wall etc.) Source: Khaleej Times, 10 April 2005.

Indian Scientist among Winners of WWF Contest
An Indian scientist has found place among the winners of the International Smart Gear Competition conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Dr MR Boopendranath, principal scientist at the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (India) came up with one of three winning solutions to prevent the accidental maiming and killing of marine mammals, juvenile fish and sea turtles that become ensnared by fishing nets and longlines, the WWF said. Source: Press Trust of India, 20 April 2005.

EUROPE

British Tourists Blamed for Damage to Turtles’ Haven
The European Commission is taking the Greek Government to court for failing to protect the unique loggerhead turtle habitat on the Ionian island of Zakynthos from the 200,000 British holidaymakers who visit the island each year. A month after his appointment, Stavros Dimas, the EU Environment Commissioner, has threatened to impose a hefty daily fine on his country for failing to safeguard the environment needed for the turtle to thrive. He is awaiting a full written response from Greece about what it will do to save the turtles’ breeding grounds. The noise from beach parties and nightclubs is preventing turtles from crawling on to the sands to bury their eggs. Instead, many are releasing their eggs in the sea, where they will not hatch. Source: The Times, London 7 February 2005.

OCEANIA

Early Turtle Ancestor Found
Scientists have dug up fossils of what they say are some of the earliest ancestors of modern sea turtles. The 110 million year old fossils of several turtles are the earliest remains of their kind found in Australia. Palaeontologists from the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide made the discovery, from the Early Cretaceous period, at a dig near Boulia in western Queensland. Research scientist Dr Ben Kear says the fossils suggest the Cheloniidae family of modern turtles had some of their earliest origins in Australia. Source: ABC Queensland, 21 February 2005.