Working to Save the Turtles...

[GoodWitch58]

Biologists to move sea turtle eggs east - Gulf Oil Spill - MiamiHerald.com

To save a generation of sea turtles from being wiped out by the Deepwater Horizon disaster, state and federal biologists have hatched a daring but risky plan.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/28/1705882/biologists-to-move-sea-turtle.html#ixzz0sMaAqEdq

 

[Gidget]

I hope it works. Thanks for posting.

I am going to bring up something that is probably not too popular and that is the effect of shrimping on sea turtles.

Bycatch: Oil Spill + Shrimp Trawls = A World of Hurt for Gulf Sea Turtles - OnEarth Magazine

The threat posed by the the massive oil spill is very real, says STRP's Pincetich. But it is not the only one that turtles face.

Sea Turtle Restoration Project?:?Shrimping worse for turtles than oil spill
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Shrimp boats are the chief commercial fishing danger for turtles because they tow their nets underwater for long distances, and turtles trapped in them are unable to come up for air.

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It is something I've considered for years when choosing what food I am going to purchase. Not shrimp. And that's comin' from a Louisiana gal.

And sea turtles are not the only ones hurt.

On average for every pound of shrimp brought up in nets five pounds of other creatures come up as "bycatch" and are thrown back dead. The bycatch includes bass, herring, crab, mullet, flounder and tuna, often juvenile, as well as ancient, endangered sea turtles.

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U.S. shrimpers are required to fix their nets so turtles can get out, (dead turtles are likely drowning in nets where the devices are either tied shut or improperly installed) but that doesn't help the rest of the bycatch or the turtles in the rest of the world. Shrimp bycatch totals 19 million pounds a year, 20% as much as the world's total commercial fish catch.