Ocean Sentry
Loggerhead sea turtles whose nests line Florida and Georgia beaches each summer could face “quasi-extinction” despite efforts to protect nesting grounds, federal scientists have concluded.
The warning this month to the National Marine Fisheries Service comes as monitoring groups around Florida report an apparent drop in loggerhead nesting this year. The grim news has been compounded by a realization there is probably not a single, easy-to-spot problem wholly responsible for the pattern.
The findings have drawn a dire response from activists.
“This isn’t just a problem. This is really a crisis,” said Dave Allison, senior campaign director at Oceana, a group that wants more turtle protections.
“We’re talking about a trend line that leads to extinction.”
Because sea turtles have long lives, an extinction that takes three generations might play out over 100 years. The federal government considers loggerheads a threatened species, one level below endangered. But scientists said the risk is evident today… Read Full Article by Steve Patterson
