Sea turtle numbers drop as dangers increase

Wade Spees
The Post and Courier

Edisto, a 310-pound loggerhead turtle, is one of the lucky ones. Found last year entangled in a crab trap, Edisto was rehabilitated at the S.C. Aquarium and released at Folly Beach. The success rate for saving debilitated turtles is low, said DuBose Griffin, a state Natural Resources official.

Cape Romain lost a flipper after getting tangled up in a crab pot line. The loggerhead turtle, now in the South Carolina Aquarium rehabilitation hospital, will soon go back to the wild — a one-flippered loggerhead released in Florida swam off easily, traveling 800 miles through the Bahamas.

The beloved mammoths are durable reptiles. So Lowcountry conservationists share a national concern that the threatened species is declining again, after its numbers seemed to rebound in the 1990s.

The latest S.C. Department of Natural Resources survey of females coming ashore to nest continues to show a 3 percent decline, said Dubose Griffin, sea turtle program coordinator.

"The highs (in survey counts) are low and the lows are low, and that's what you see in a decline," she said

Slightly more than 1,500 nests were reported in the state this year.

The loggerhead is the ponderous, 300-pound sea turtle whose females come ashore to nest in a summertime ritual that is a treasure of the South Carolina coast.

Video

Geoff Marshall at the Sea Turtle Rescue hospital at the aquarium talks to the senior biologist about the current state of the turtle population Watch »

A recently released federal study suggests loggerheads are being lost primarily as bycatch in international commercial fishing. According to the report, U.S. nestings by state have dropped in a range from 7 percent in the Gulf of Mexico to 2 percent in North Carolina. That's a reversal from steady or increasing numbers in the 1990s.

The report said fisheries are the "most significant man-made factor affecting the conservation and recovery of the loggerhead."

Barbara Schroeder, National Marine Fisheries Service sea turtle coordinator, said the problem is growing as developing countries bring fishing fleets on line, fishing ships go farther from land and the demand for seafood increases.

Off South Carolina, though, required gear on lines and nets appears to have stemmed that loss. Along with that, the numbers of commercial fishing boats and shrimp trawlers have dropped.

"It's something we have pretty well straightened out ourselves with circle hooks, turtle excluder devices and observers on boats continually to check the results, and the rest of the world has not come up to" said Frank Blum, South Carolina Seafood Alliance director and a commercial fisherman.

Boat strikes are among other threats to the turtles, said Kelly Thorvalson, aquarium sea turtle rescue program coordinator. Recreational fishermen this year have brought in four loggerhead turtles that were inadvertently hooked.

The Southeast is one of the two largest loggerhead nesting areas in the world. Most nests are found in Florida; the other major nesting area is in the Middle East. Because the turtles live at sea, scientists rely largely on nesting numbers to estimate population.

The federal study is a five-year status update required under the Endangered Species Act.

Cape Romain is one of three breeding-age adults at the rehab center, along with a second male, Edisto, and a female, DeBordieu.

"We just need to get these adults back out there. They are critical to our population," Thorvalson said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.