sea turtles

Did you know that all six species of sea turtles in U.S. waters are listed under the Endangered Species Act?

Then I bet you'd be surprised to find out that our country's trawl fisheries still catch hundreds of sea turtles in their nets every year, killing or severely injuring many of them. Loggerhead turtles have been protected for 30 years, but their numbers continue to decline.

Fortunately, there's a way to prevent this: It's called a Turtle Excluder Device - or TED - and it's an "escape hatch" that allows a sea turtle to wiggle out of the trawl net, relatively unharmed.

While some fisheries use TEDs, too many do not - why? Because they're not required to.

Shameless Promo Part 1:
The Daily Green gave Oceana a lengthy shout-out for our celeb-studded Sea Change event earlier this summer. What can we say? Harrison and Calista and the rest of the gang love us...

Shameless Promo Part 2:
This weekend I'm blowing this popsicle stand (Oceana HQ) and heading for the beach (Bald Head Island, NC) to catch a glimpse of some sea turtles hatching...at least, that's the plan. Sounds like tropical storm Hanna took out a few nests, but not all of them, thankfully. Stay tuned for updates as I try to be in the right place at the right time.

...would you be so kind as to spare the sea turtles? We'd appreciate it.

As Tropical Storm Hanna hurtles toward the Carolinas, ETA this weekend, with feisty-sounding Ike chasing along right behind her, let's hope they have mercy on the turtles (and humans) in their path.

I'm particularly concerned about this season's storms because an upcoming project of mine hinges on them. What's this mysterious project, you ask? Well, I was going to keep it a secret, but I've never been too good at that. So here's the news: the week of September 13-20, I'll be heading to my home state of North Carolina to follow around the folks at the Bald Head Island Conservancy in their efforts to protect loggerhead sea turtles. And I'll be blogging about it, too.

The idea, of course, is to catch a glimpse of some sea turtles peek out of their shells and make the perilous waddle to the sea. But as these storms swirl closer, I'm fretting that my chances of seeing turtle hatchlings are fading with my suntan.

Turtle nests are often wiped out by the storms. And the strongest storms, according to a new study, are made even stronger as a result of climate change.

And aside from getting washed away by storms, turtles are affected by climate change in other ways. For example, as beaches get warmer, a higher percentage of female turtles are born, setting off change in the population's sex ratio. Plus, climate change affects ocean currents, which in turn affects turtles' migration patterns.

The answer, according to our new report, is an overwhelming yes.

As you may have heard on NPR's Marketplace this morning, our report, Sea the Value: Quantifying the Value of Marine Life to Divers, asked scuba divers whether they would be willing to pay to help protect populations of ocean wildlife -- and a majority of divers surveyed said they would.

...it sounds like the start of a bad joke. Unfortunately, it's real.

Reuters reports that about 60 newly hatched sea turtles in southern Italy lost their way during their ritual passage to the sea and wound up under the tables at a beachfront restaurant.

The babies were most likely attracted to the establishment's bright lights, say conservation workers.

But maybe they were just craving gnocchi...

Sick of all the doping scandals in cycling? Check out Tour de Turtles instead.

Good news for Pacific marine life, particularly sea turtles: the L.A. Times reports that the city council has voted to ban plastic carryout bags in the city's stores by 2010, unless the state imposes a 25-cent fee on those who request them.

Fact: All six sea turtle species in U.S. waters are threatened with, or in danger of, extinction. Fact: Bottom trawl fisheries are the single greatest threat to loggerhead sea turtles. This is where we come in...

The Standard-Times, a newspaper covering southern Massachusetts, features a blog about fishing issues. It's an appropriate topic for an area that has been part of America's oldest fishing communities. Waterscape polls its readers on fishing-related issues; currently, it wants to know whether you favor closing scallop fishing grounds to protect sea turtles. I think we know the answer to that one, right? Head on over and make your voice heard.

Environmental groups and corporations alike will spend parts of today stressing how "green" they are. At Oceana, we prefer to talk about how "blue" we are, but just for today I'd also like to focus on a little green - both financial and reptilian.