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A federal court has reversed an international court opinion allowing the U.S. to ban shrimp imports from nations that do not do enough to protect endangered sea turtles. Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a ruling by the Court of International Trade that would have expanded the present U.S. embargo on imported shrimp. Critics of the embargo said it violated international trade agreements. Source: Environment News Service, 26 March 2002.

A record number of sea turtles died on Florida beaches last year, largely due to shrimpers, experts said. In 2001, 1,337 dead or dying turtles were stranded on Florida shores, the most since biologists started monitoring them in 1980, the Florida Marine Research Institute announced. Shrimpers likely killed the most turtles, said Allen Foley, a biologist with the institute's Sea Turtle Research Group, adding that nearly a quarter of the turtles died after colliding with boat propellers and hulls. Source: Associated Press, 16 February 2002.

Civic pride has clashed with sea turtle preservation in a debate over whether to hang decorative lights on what will be Georgia's tallest bridge. The 480-foot Sidney Lanier Bridge is expected to open in July and some wildlife officials are concerned that bright decorative lights would affect young sea turtles leaving their nests. When the US Fish and Wildlife Service expressed concerns that the lighting plan could affect young sea turtles, the cable and tower lighting was dropped from the building contract. Greg Masson, an assistant field supervisor with the service, said "turtle friendly" bulbs can be used on the bridge; they're already going to be installed in street lights on the north approach span of the bridge. Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal, 2 February 2002.

Conservationists and shrimp fishermen are drafting state legislation and say they would like to see it adopted before the seasons begin in mid-May. Both sides described their agreement as a compromise between current turtle excluder device regulations and a federal proposal for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that has been inching through repeated delays. The TED opening required now, 12 by 35 inches, is too small to free some mature loggerheads studies show. The federal proposed rule would establish a 71 by 20-inch TED opening or a double flap. The compromise: an opening that would measure 20 inches by 35 inches when the net is stretched taut. Source: Charleston Post-Courier, February 2002.

The Costa Rican Ombudsman's office determined that the Environment Ministry and the Costa Rican Fishing Institute (INCOPESCA) must find a way to close the gap in their enforcement of fishing and wildlife protection legislation. "If this doesn't work, we are considering filing criminal charges" said a cautiously hopeful Randall Arauz, president of the Costa Rican Sea Turtle Restoration Program which filed the formal complaint on the matter. ARAUZ claims INCOPESCA consistently tries to duck its responsibility by saying it has no enforcement power, or by throwing the ball to the Environment Ministry. INCOPESCA officials concede they cannot effectively regulate the fishing industry, but blame their impotence on scarce resources and a lack of legislative authority. Source: Tico Times, 8 March 2002.

The National Technical Environmental Secretariat (SETENA) of Costa Rica's Ministry of the Environment and Energy released a 52 page justification for why they have rejected the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) presented by the Harken Energy Corporation in order to obtain permission to drill for oil off the country's Caribbean coast. SETENA's decision was a unanimous vote by the seven plenary commission members to reject the EIA as the project was deemed "not environmentally viable." The potential negative impacts the proposed drilling would have had on the area's globally important sea turtle populations and turtle related tourism were important factors in SETENA's decision. Source: CCC press release, 4 March 2002.

The loggerhead sea turtle will represent the plight of all of South Carolina's rare species as the critter on the state's new endangered species license plate. The turtle received two-thirds of the votes in a contest to determine what creature would be displayed on the new plate. Source: Island Packet, 7 February 2002.

A centuries-old Mexican tradition of eating sea turtles during the Lenten season is killing as many as 5,000 turtles each year, say conservationists. Wildcoast, a California-based conservation organization, has started a Spanish-language radio campaign. The group is part of a coalition that has asked the pope to reinforce the ban on turtle meat, which many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans eat during Semana Santa, or the days leading up to Easter Sunday. "Many of the consumers consider sea turtle to be fish because it swims. We humbly request that your holiness officially clarify that sea turtle flesh is meat and inappropriate for consumption during Lent," the Sea Turtle Conservation Network of the Californias said in a letter to Pope John Paul II. Source: Associated Press, 15 March 2002.

The National Marine Fisheries Service violated laws requiring protection of Pacific groundfish, a federal judge has ruled. The judge ruled that the federal agency failed to address the problem of bycatch: the accidental catching and killing of non-targeted fish and other species, such as sea turtles and birds and ordered the fisheries agency to revise its fishery management plan to comply with federal fisheries laws. Source: Environmental News Service, 19 April 2002.

Federal fisheries regulators said yesterday that areas off Virginia and North Carolina will be closed to large-mesh-gill-net fishing to protect migrating sea turtles. The National Marine Fisheries Service said that the closures fall under an interim final rule, and that it would take comments until June 15. Gill-net fishing will be closed at all times south of Oregon Inlet and north of the South Carolina border. The closure will be temporary north of Oregon Inlet to Chincoteague, Va. In April and May of 2000, 280 sea turtles were found dead on beaches in North Carolina and Virginia. It was the largest number of deaths recorded by the agency, and four of the dead turtles had gill-net gear on them. Source: Associated Press, 19 March 2002.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed a seasonal ban on the use of certain fishing equipment in the Chesapeake Bay to protect sea turtles. The agency is seeking comment on its proposal to restrict the springtime use of a device that directs fish into traps known as pound nets. Pound net fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay target bait fish, croaker, menhaden, mackerel and other fish species. But the devices also entangle and drown endangered sea turtles in Virginia waters of the Chesapeake Bay during their spring migration. The fishers could continue to use pound nets as long as they have mesh smaller than 12 inches. Source: Environment News Service, 2 April 2002.

A moratorium on longline fishing in the Pacific Ocean is urgently needed to keep the world's largest living marine turtle from extinction, a conference of sea turtle experts declared Thursday. This week 50 leatherback turtle experts gathered in Pacific Grove for the Leatherback International Survival Conference to map strategies that might save the Pacific leatherbacks. To save the leatherbacks from extinction, the delegates passed a resolution that calls on the United Nations, the United States and all other nations "to institute a moratorium on pelagic longline, gillnet and other fisheries harmful to Pacific leatherback turtles until such activities can be conducted without harm to the species, and provide allocations of transitional aid to affected fishers and communities." Source: Environment News Service, 26 April 2002.

The Sierra Club filed a lawsuit to stop oil and natural gas drilling on the Padre Island National Seashore. The complaint against the US Dept. of Interior seeks to halt heavy truck traffic that the environmental group alleges will threaten the endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle, which nests on the seashore. In addition to naming Interior Secretary Gale Norton as a defendant, the Sierra Club also named the National Park Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The suit involves a natural gas well projected managed by BNP Petroleum, a Corpus Christi company. In this case, the Sierra Club contends that the truck traffic could harm the endangered turtle's nesting. The organization is seeking a court injunction to cease the work until an environmental study is done, Richardson said. Source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 19 April 2002.

At least 10,000 endangered olive ridley turtles have been killed in the waters of the Bay of Bengal, conservation group Operation Kanchappa reported. Turtle carcasses have been washing up on the shores of the Indian state of Orissa since early December. The turtles are killed when they are trapped in the nets of fishing trawlers during their mating season, when they congregate in their nesting grounds in large numbers. The turtle death toll last year was 18,000. Source: Environment News Service, 5 February 2002.

Tourism in Phuket, a Thai resort island, is booming, but as more hotels and bars are constructed along its white-sand beaches, its wild inhabitants are being squeezed out. The biggest casualty are the island's colony of turtles.Thanu Nabnien, from Wildlife Fund Thailand, said the declining turtle population and destruction of mangrove forests were two of the most serious environmental problems caused by the expanding tourism industry. The pristine beaches favoured for the development of five-star resorts are unfortunately also the turtles' top choice for egg-laying. While the number of hatchlings has tumbled as a result of the beachside development, the young turtles who do make it to the sea face another hazard in the form of the Andaman Sea fisheries industry. Source: AFP, 28 February 2002.

A women's conference in Palau has voted for a moratorium on the harvest of marine turtles. The motion has been referred to Palau's president. Conference delegates said marine turtles were an important food source for the people of Palau but feared continuous harvesting could lead to their extinction. Source: ABC Radio Australia, 18 April 2002.

A new UK Turtle Code will be launched that encourages fishermen to join in efforts to save endangered turtles in UK seas. The Code will be launched during a groundbreaking workshop, held by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) in Swansea, which will bring fishermen, conservationists and scientists from England and Wales together for the first time to plan a research programme aimed at finding out more about marine turtles in UK waters. The UK Turtle Code encourages fishermen, recreational boaters and other sea-users to immediately report all encounters with turtles in UK waters and advises fishermen on how to rescue turtles entangled in fishing gear. Source: Marine Conservation Society press release, March 2002.

Motorbike security patrols along beaches near the venue of a Commonwealth leaders' summit are threatening endangered turtles. Local government wildlife officer Michael McNamara said the patrols by police and army could kill endangered turtles. McNamara said hundreds of turtles hatch along the Queensland Sunshine Coast between February and March and the bike patrols could easily crush nests of eggs or create wheel ruts in the sand too deep for the hatchlings to climb over. Source: Reuters, 1March 2002.