Wake Up, Florida! Land Conservation is Bigger Than Us.

I wrote an opinion piece on the importance of land conservation to our planet's future, and to the future of our wildlife. It was published in the Orlando Sentinel.

Here is the text:

Florida, allocate enough funds to land conservation to make a difference

It’s time to wake up, Florida.

I’m as guilty of it as the next person; living day to day in my bubble, just trying to get by, not fully appreciating what’s happening outside the window of my apartment, car, or office building.

But it’s time to open our eyes. Crazy things are happening.

Our climate is changing faster now than ever before in recorded history. Scientists warn us of terrifying storms, flooded roads, heat waves — even increased international aggression.

We’re in the midst of the world’s sixth mass extinction event. Let that sink in: Something that has only happened five other times in the history of this planet is happening right now — and we’re causing it. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, plant and animal species are dying off by the dozens every day, with iconic species like the Asian elephant vulnerable to going the way of the dinosaur.

If we think Florida is isolated from all this international drama, we’re in denial.

We’re part of the problem. But we can also be part of the solution.

Protecting environmentally sensitive land is helpful in fighting both climate change and the extinction of species.

Conserving natural and working landscapes is integral to curbing climate change-causing greenhouse gas emissions. These lands, when managed properly, can remove carbon dioxide from the air and store significant amounts of carbon in plant cover and soil. They also mitigate the negative effects of climate change on our communities. Preserving lands along our coastline strengthens shorelines, buffering our communities from extreme weather events. Mangroves reduce wind speed and wave damage during storms and allow soil to build up over time, mitigating damage from sea level rise. One acre of wetland can store up to 1.5 million gallons of floodwater, reducing flooding impacts from the next hurricane.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are powerful driving forces of the extinction crisis. Protecting lands that provide important habitat gives species a chance to recover. Take, for example, the Florida panther. We are liable to pave the panther out of existence. Already, our state animal has been constrained to less than 5 percent of its historic range. We must protect and expand remaining breeding areas south of the Caloosahatchee River and habitat outside of South Florida in order to meet the recovery goals set for the Florida panther under the Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, there are proposals moving forward to develop primary panther habitat where panthers are breeding and rearing their young. If we do not protect sufficient habitat soon, we will lose the Florida panther forever. And the myriad species under the panther’s “umbrella,” which share the panther’s habitat, will be closer to extinction as well.

In times of global crises, each of us must do everything we can to help. And land conservation in Florida is actually quite easy. There is a long list of land owners who are willing to sell their land or development rights to the state. We have some of the best land conservation programs in the country to rank acquisition projects objectively and scientifically. And the Water and Land Conservation Amendment provides funds through the Land Acquisition Trust Fund to make the purchases. All the Legislature has to do is allocate enough funds to our land conservation programs to make a difference. So it’s time to wake up.

Legislators have to remember that when they’re negotiating numbers around the table, deciding the funding that Florida Forever (the state’s preeminent land conservation program) will receive, they’re not playing with any old political bargaining chip. They’re playing with real investments in the sustainability of our state and planet as we know it.

The Legislature should dedicate the largest share of funds in the Land Acquisition Trust Fund, approximately $300 million next year, to Florida’s land conservation programs including the Florida Forever Priority List, Rural and Family Lands Protection Program, and Florida Communities Trust program. It’s the least we can do for the future of our planet.

If you agree, do your part by calling your legislators and letting them know.

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Gladys Delgadillo, 26, is the administrator of the Florida Conservation Coalition.

Federal Eagle Management Scoping Comments 9-22-14

The following is a September, 2014 comment letter I worked on with my supervisor at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida regarding bald eagle management:

Public Comments Processing

Attn: FWS–R9–MB–2011–0094

Division of Policy and Directives Management

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

4401 N. Fairfax Drive, MS 2042–PDM

Arlington, VA 22203

US Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters

Attn: Public Comments Processing

MS: BPHC

5275 Leesburg Pike

Falls Church, VA 22041-3803

RE: Eagle Management and Permitting

Dear Comments Processor,

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, on behalf of our over 4,500 members, writes in regard to the Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement regarding Eagle Management and Permitting (FWS-R9-MB-2011-0094).

Bald eagles are very important to the people of southwest Florida. Likewise, southwest Florida is very important for bald eagles. As of 2005, 11% of the nesting population in the contiguous United States is found in Florida; more than every other state besides Alaska and Minnesota.[1] Eagles have been known to nest in every county that the Conservancy serves: Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, and Lee counties. In fact, Lee County is considered a core nesting area, as evidenced by its status as among the top 10 counties with regards to number of bald eagle nesting territories[2]. Clustered around important wetland and coastal systems, both Lee and Charlotte County are identified as essential areas for eagles.

As a component of our quality of life, continued regional biodiversity, and prolonged recovered status, we want to ensure that bald eagles continue to thrive into perpetuity in southwest Florida. The Conservancy encourages maintained stringent protections at all levels of government to ensure that bald eagles will not become extirpated from our area, as well as to reduce the likelihood of necessary Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing in the future.

Current and Increased Development Pressure on Southwest Florida

Though Florida has previously served as a stable base and even a source for eagle populations, we are deeply concerned that current and potential future human population growth and related development will encroach ever further into important eagle nesting and foraging grounds. A 2013 Bureau of Economic and Business Research report stated that Florida’s human population had grown by 17.6% between 2000 and 2010.[3] In that same time period, Florida gained more residents than 47 other states.[4] Florida’s population is projected to continue growing, with 243,000 additional residents each year between 2020-2030 and 198,000 additional residents annually between 2030 and 2040.[5]

Southwest Florida is no exception to these population trends. Lee County, for example - a bald eagle hotspot - is projected to house an additional 1,044,300 residents by 2040.[6] If development patterns do not change, 7 million acres of undeveloped land in Florida will be converted to urban uses.[7] Southwest Florida has also seen this trend confirmed in the past year, particularly as the regional economy has resumed. Dozens of development projects are currently underway, including projects that will infringe upon eagle nesting areas or threaten disturbance to resident eagles. This continued development threatens southwest Florida’s eagles.

While bald eagles had been recovered from being threatened by extinction and are no longer listed under the ESA, threats to their status remain over the long-term and the Service must be forward-thinking to ensure that any new changes in the regulations will not facilitate a decline in the population, particularly in Florida. Federal standards should be maintained at a stringent level to ensure that sufficient habitat and nesting areas are available over the long-term.

We understand that potential changes to current regulation under this scoping were partially driven in regards to wind energy activities. However, potential rule changes that would allow for reduced project analysis/review, or increased nest removals, eagle take, or disturbance allowances, could be more broadly applied to commercial and residential development and potentially result in a stagnant or decreased eagle population in southwest Florida given the development trends in our area. We encourage the Service to be cognizant of potential long-term implications of any proposed changes to eagle permitting and management in light of this, and to consider the potential resulting biological implications over the long-term on eagle populations.

Conditions for Incidental Take and Nest Removal Should Be Protective to Maintain Populations

Active Nests

Given the current, and likely increasing, habitat loss and fragmentation to a myriad of intensified land uses including residential and commercial development, agriculture, mining, and oil and gas exploration and drilling, we ask that the FWS retain protective rules for incidental take and nest removal permits.

We would like to see the definition of “active nest” be expanded to beyond the current 10 day standard, and consider nests with eagle activity during the nesting season to be considered “active,” such as the definition utilized in Florida. However, regardless of the ultimate definition of “active nest” at the federal level, the criteria for considering take/nest removal for an active nest should remain as it current is: only for cases of clear human or eagle safety. Active eagle nests should not be removed except in the case of a safety emergency. In the case of a safety emergency, the FWS should ensure that all measures to reduce the risk or viable alternatives are explored before pursuing the active nest removal option. This is especially true with the presence of eagle eggs and young.

In regards to this issue, we would like to inquire as to what kind of events the Service believes would qualify as an “anticipated emergency”? This language should be made clear to ensure that nests are not removed categorically and that a bonafide human or eagle safety emergency exists.

Incidental/Non-Purposeful Take and Inactive Nests

As discussed above, southwest Florida has experienced, and will continue to experience, a growth in human activities that may result in incidental take and disturbance to adult and nesting eagles. When the eagle was delisted, the protective buffer around nests was reduced to 660 feet. We would not support any further reduction of this protective buffer, as this buffer is needed at a minimum to reduce disturbance and incidental take from adjacent uses such as construction.

In regards to the removal of a nest deemed to be “inactive,” we would encourage the FWS to maintain stringent and protective guidelines. The bald eagle is often the subject of wildlife based ecotourism in our area, and is a species that is considered by many as a symbol of our nation. In addition, maintaining nests in our region preserves a biological function as a core nesting area.

We understand that currently an inactive nest may be removed if the activity or mitigation for the activity will provide a net benefit to eagles.[8] It is noted by the Service that the mitigation provided may be considered the net benefit.[9]

The Conservancy believes that mitigation cannot be considered a net benefit if the impact can be avoided and minimized. Thus, we encourage both during the incidental take process, as well as in contemplation of inactive nest removal, that the FWS employ guidance and rules that require the maximum practicable avoidance and minimization conditions, prior to consideration of compensatory mitigation. If feasible, maintaining eagles in place, with a protective buffer from disturbance and with access to adequate habitat resources, is preferable to vague mitigation measures such as donation of funds to eagle conservation objectives. This will also assist with keeping eagles in our local community as opposed to providing mitigation that may be applied outside of our southwest Florida area.

If avoidance and minimization has been fully implemented and incidental take or nest removal is still necessary, compensatory mitigation should be required. Mitigation should be quantitative and predictable between projects, while still allowing options for on-site preservation. Options for on-site conservation can allow for benefits directly for an affected eagle pair or the local territory.  Compensatory mitigation should also be concrete. For example, areas for habitat replacement should be identified. FWS could allow monetary offsets to be collected as compensation if no other direct mitigation options are possible. If mitigation funds are collected, they should be used primarily for land acquisition of important bald eagle habitat. Funds should be applied for eagle conservation within the region of the eagles that were impacted.

Additionally, if a nest is permitted to be removed, FWS should consider a requirement to relocate the nest to a nearby tree prior to the next nesting season. If the nest is relocated in the nesting territory of the resident eagles, the resident eagles retain a chance at returning to their nest for years to come.

Programmatic Permit Considerations

Appropriate Projects and Areas for Application of Programmatic Permits

It appears that current programmatic permit frameworks are related mostly to energy and infrastructure activities. However, programmatic permits can also extent to other types of projects that may need to take eagles.

The Conservancy does have concerns with current available programmatic permits in regards to maintaining wildlife resources and encourages further efforts to reduce injury and mortalities for eagles, birds, bats, and other wildlife. However, we would be most concerned if the Service were to develop programmatic permits to include commercial/residential development, large scale mining, or oil and gas development or surveying, particularly in the southwest Florida area.

Certain geographic areas would not be appropriate for long-term programmatic permits; these areas include populations that are critical to the continued stability and increase of eagle populations, populations that are not currently viable over the long-term and need to be expanded to avoid extirpation, and those areas that contribute to landscape movements of eagles such as major migration flyways.[10] Likewise, geographic areas with unpredictable future habitat availability and undeterminable cumulative impacts from human activities, are also inappropriate areas for long-term programmatic permits. Researching and establishing a list of such areas will help to streamline the permitting process for FWS, provide clarity to interested industries, and help to ensure eagles continue to thrive in the United States. Tools like the American Bird Conservancy Wind Development Bird Risk Map may be helpful in establishing this list in regards to programmatic permits related to wind energy project development.

Adaptive Management and Advanced Conservation Practices

For those activities that already allow for utilization of programmatic permits, Advanced Conservation Practices (ACPs) should be further developed. Although adaptive management is a tool that can be utilized for longer-term programmatic permits, the Service should not provide programmatic permits –or standard permits for that matter- unless it can understand the total effect of the proposed project on bald eagles throughout the length of the project. For this reason, it is prudent to keep programmatic permits to a timeframe where impacts can be predictable and properly avoided, minimized and mitigated.

Any long-term programmatic permits, particularly those extended past five years, should have mechanisms built in so that if bald eagles are found to be effected more negatively than accounted for in the permit, that the Service can readdress the project and require additional avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures. Likewise, such mechanisms needs to be in place not only to address unforeseen circumstances or new information pertaining to eagles, but also to address new information pertaining to technologies and new techniques for programmatic permit activities. For example, current ideas to reduce incidental take of eagles at wind energy projects includes radar technology that can sense when large birds are approaching and slow down or stop the turbine(s) that is/are a threat, guidelines that require operators to more closely monitor turbines when meteorological conditions like low visibility are present and may result in lower flying eagles[11], and installation of audio-visual deterrents.

Additional Public Commenting Is Needed

We appreciate the opportunity to provide comment during this scoping effort. As it appears that this scoping my effect eagles beyond those related to energy projects and may have very wide implications, we would ask that the comment period be further continued to encourage additional comments and expanded input by other interested stakeholders. Many in the environmental community have been unaware of this scoping effort or its potential implications beyond energy projects. Additional outreach about this effort, and an additional public commenting window would be beneficial.

We hope to provide additional input when the scoping concludes and any further details are provided about rule or guidance changes.

Sincerely,

Amber Crooks                                                            Gladys Delgadillo

Senior Natural Resources Specialist                          Conservation Associate

Cc:

Jennifer Hecker, Conservancy of Southwest Florida

Eliza Savage, FWS

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[1] Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 2008. Bald Eagle Management Plan.

[2] Ibid. Assessed in 2005.

[3] Smith and Rayer, 2013. Projections of Florida Population by County, 2015-2040, with Estimates for 2012. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Vol. 46, Bulletin 165. March 2013.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid. P. 1.

[6] Smith and Rayer, 2014. Projections of Florida Population by County, 2015-2040, with Estimates for 2013. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Vol. 47, Bulletin 168. April 2014. P.6.

[7] Zwick & Carr, 2006. Florida 2060: A Population Distribution Scenario for the State of Florida. GeoPlan Center, University of Florida. P.7.

[8] 50 C.F.R. 22.27.

[9] US Fish and Wildlife Service, 2014. Bald and Golden Eagle Management Public Scoping Process. Published on July 16, 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNu4moE8orA.

[10] Federal Register, 2013. Eagle Permits; Changes in the Regulations Governing Eagle Permitting. Published December 9, 2013. Accessed from: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/12/09/2013-29088/eagle-permits-changes-in-the-regulations-governing-eagle-permitting. 

[11] Drouin, 2014. Eight Ways Wind Power Companies Are Trying to Stop Killing Birds and Bats. Published January 6, 2014. Accessed from http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/01/birds-bats-wind-turbines-deadly-collisions.

Funding Cut for Binational Kemp's Ridley Conservation!!

The Issue:

Government funding for the Mexico/U.S. Binational Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Population Restoration Project was cut to $50,000 for this year, and will be discontinued next year.

Background:

Mexico/U.S. Binational Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Population Restoration Project:

This binational program has provided funding ($250,000 annually until 2013) for monitoring beaches where Kemp’s Ridley mothers nest since 1978. 99% of the Kemp’s Ridley population nests in Northern Mexico and only 1% nests in South Texas. Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles do not nest anywhere else in the world.

This program successfully increased the number of nesting Kemp’s Ridley turtles from only a couple hundred in 1985, to nearly 10,000 in 2009! In fact, the program saw population numbers increasing by 19% every year until 2009/2010! This achievement makes the Binational Kemp’s Ridley Conservation program the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s most triumphant program ever!

Funding Cuts:

The United States has accrued serious debt. In order to incentivize Congress to arrive at a plan to reduce national spending, and slowly reduce the national debt, the Budget Control Act of 2011 was passed.

The Act imposed a sequestration, or across-the-board federal budget cuts, if Congress could not agree on a budget. Because Congress did NOT agree on a budget, these budget cuts took effect in December, 2013. The sequestration required that federal agency heads cut spending evenly in every one of their programs.

Congress did finally arrive at a budget for 2015, but unfortunately, this budget did not provide funding for the binational Kemp’s Ridley conservation program. This decision would have gone through Earl Possardt, Marine Turtle Program Officer at U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Why It’s A Problem:

Population Growth Has Halted:

Many believe that the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle is the most endangered species of sea turtle in the world. Conservation programs have helped the Kemp’s Ridley population begin to recover, however, their population numbers dropped 30% in 2010 and have not rebounded since then.  This halt in population growth is thought to be largely due to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle was the species most affected by this event.

The Population Has Not Fully Recovered:

In 1947, over 40,000 Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles were observed nesting on one stretch of beach in Mexico. Every one of those observed sea turtles would have laid 2 to 3 nests that year.  

In 2011, only 20,000 total nests were recorded in both Mexico and the US. Clearly, the Kemp’s Ridley population has not yet recovered.

Research on the Effect of the 2010 BP Oil Spill is Needed:

Scientists believe the BP oil spill in 2010 played a large role in halting Kemp’s Ridley population growth, however, without research, this cannot be definitively determined. If we don’t know exactly why Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles are disappearing, we cannot work effectively to help their species.

If Kemp’s Ridley population numbers did drop dramatically because of the oil spill, we will need to wait for the hatchlings, who would have been most affected by the spill, to reach sexual maturity before we can understand exactly how Kemp’s Ridleys were effected. (Most population data is gathered from breeding females who come ashore to lay their nests.) Until then, we cannot accurately estimate how many sea turtles were killed or injured as a result of the BP oil spill, and how our conservation successes have been negated. Sea turtles will continue to be affected even after the sea turtles who were hatchlings at the time of the spill reach adulthood, as spilled oil persists in an area for decades. Continuing to collect data on Kemp’s Ridley populations for several more years is necessary before we can accurately establish accurate population counts and design future steps toward their recovery.

Cutting funding for the Kemp’s Ridley now, might mean cutting funding when the Kemp’s Ridley really needs our help.

Without Conservation, Endangered Species will go Extinct

Conservation efforts make a difference, as exemplified by the Binational Kemp’s Ridley conservation program’s effect on the Kemp’s Ridley population. Without these programs, endangered species would quickly disappear. The Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle is endangered, and it still needs our help. Because most of their population nests in Mexico, a country where conservation is underfunded, it is critical that the US continues to support this program itself.

Thank Sea Turtles; It’s Time to Fish!

 An edited version of the following article was featured in Hooked Magazine, a local fisherman's publication.           

            Sea turtles are crucial to healthy fish populations! Green sea turtles are one of the only marine animals that eats sea grass, which needs to be constantly cut to stay healthy. Sea grass beds are important because they provide a place for many species of fish to grow and breed. Without these healthy beds, many fish would go extinct-creating ripple effects across the entire ocean ecosystem. Next time you catch a fish that is alive due to a healthy sea grass bed, you should thank a sea turtle! The best way to thank a sea turtle is to be proactive at avoiding sea turtle injury while fishing!

            You probably already know that sea turtles can get caught in fishing equipment and injure themselves. Here are 7 ways to avoid catching these endangered species:

1)   If you see lots of sea turtles in an area, be careful! Avoid the area if possible. If you need to fish in the area, try reeling up your bait often to see if you’ve accidentally caught a sea turtle. If a sea turtle nibbles on your bait, but you have not caught it, try recasting your fishing gear in the opposite direction of the sea turtle. Sea turtles are almost always foraging near the jetties, so please be especially careful if fishing in this area!

2)   Use barbless circle hooks instead of “J” hooks. Sea turtles can more easily remove themselves from circle hooks, which limits the injuries associated with them. You can use a wrench to make your own barbless circle hooks out of “J” hooks!

3)   If possible, attach UltraViolet LED lights to your fishing nets. Sea turtles can see UV light, but fish cannot. These lights help to make the nets more visible to sea turtles, allowing them to avoid them more easily. This will also prevent sea turtle’s from damaging your nets!

4)   Try using live bait to attract less sea turtles. Sea turtles love stinky foods, and live bait tends to not smell as bad!

5)   Try using fish as bait instead of squid. A United Nations publication states that sea turtles are likely to take bites of fish, while they are likely to eat squid whole. If a sea turtle nibbles at your bait, you can recast your fishing gear. You may not get that opportunity with squid.

6)   When you’re cleaning your fish, make sure you’re not accidentally feeding sea turtles in the ocean. Sea turtles that associate people with food are more likely to be incidentally captured.

7)   Never leave fishing gear unattended or laying on a dock, where it could be washed or blown into the ocean. Always pick up all your fishing gear when you leave a fishing area. Cut up discarded fishing line so that it cannot entangle an animal if it ends up in the ocean, and make sure to properly discard it in a trashcan!

If you do accidentally catch a sea turtle on the island, try to bring the turtle close to you so you can help it. Do not drag the turtle up a cliff, but pull him in laterally instead so that you don’t worsen any injuries your net or hook has caused. If you cannot pull the sea turtle in, cut the fishing line as close to the sea turtle as possible. We then ask that you please call Sea Turtle, Inc at (956) 761- 4511. You can call 911 on South Padre Island to be connected with us if you don’t remember our number. Our staff will let you know what to do next!

If a sea turtle has been hooked in the jaw or caught in a net, we may just ask for you to follow our instructions and remove as much fishing gear from the animal as possible before releasing them. If the sea turtle is more seriously injured, or has swallowed a hook, it will need special care and we may ask you to please stay with the turtle until help arrives. Please remember that sea turtles are very strong and that they bite! Ask for help if you need it! The safety of yourself and the sea turtle is very important to us! Even if you’re unable to call Sea Turtle, Inc. immediately or reel in the captured sea turtle, knowing that a sea turtle has been captured, and in what area, provides us with valuable data and will help us to find the sea turtle if it strands later.

         Following these simple steps may go a long way toward protecting sea turtles! These prehistoric animals appreciate your consideration, and if each of us does our best to avoid hurting them when we fish, we can fish knowing sea turtles and the fish they help will be around for generations.

What Everyone’s Not Saying About Sargassum

The following article was featured in Sea Turtle, Inc.'s May 2014 newsletter:

You've seen it on our beaches: the heaping strips of seaweed. What you're looking at is Sargassum fluitans and natans, which is brown algae - and it stinks. Thick sargassum makes it difficult for nesting mama sea turtles to make it up the beach, for sea turtle patrollers to see turtle tracks, and eventually for hatchlings to make it to the ocean. Plus, it's widely regarded as unattractive.

But what isn't being said is how great it is! When the seaweed makes its way to Texas beaches, it's a natural phenomenon! When sargassum is in the ocean, it serves as both a shelter and a buffet for hatchlings who are not strong swimmers yet. Green sea turtles will eat large quantities of it throughout their lifetime. When the tide washes the seaweed onshore, the sargassum, and the organisms that live in it (as well as the flies it attracts), provide food for shore birds.

In addition, it serves as a buffer on the beach, reducing wave and wind erosion. It also holds down the sand in dunes, making them more resilient! Less erosion means more sand on the beaches to structurally support beachfront properties and for people to play in. Eventually, the seaweed will decompose into the sand, replenishing the shore. The nutrients from the decomposed algae act like a fertilizer, improving the growth of vegetation on the dunes. Dune plants are imporant natural tools to hold sand in place, both through their root structure and natural cover, preventing erosion of the beaches.

While government raking to remove sargassum is wonderful in many respects, it's important to remember that one cannot rake the seaweed away without also removing sand. Removing both, the sand and the natural buffer that sargassum provides, intensifies the erosion problem that threatens our beaches. Hopefully, knowing this will give you some peace if you have to take a rake with you to clear a spot for your towel on a sargassum covered beach.

Love it or hate it, sargassum is here to stay. The tide brings it to Texas beaches from March to June. Tropical storms increase the amount of seaweed that washes ashore, and as climate change causes tropical storms to be more frequent and intense, more seaweed is expected to drift onto the shore. Having said that, we might as well start talking a little more about how sargassum is working to preserve our beaches, so we can frown a little less when we see it!

Oil and Water

The following post was featured on Sea Turtle, Inc's website.

It’s true what they say about oil and water; they make for a really poor couple! Unfortunately, the Gulf of Mexico saw oil and water mix again on March 22nd, when a collision resulted in 168,000 gallons of oil spilled into Galveston’s bay.

Oil from the spill travelled south, becoming more concentrated as it moved. It washed ashore on North Padre Island, and remnants are thought to still be moving toward South Padre Island. Unfortunately, the location of the affected area, from the shores of Galveston to Padre Island, TX, is also foraging ground for sea turtles as well as the only U.S. location where Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles nest. Oiled sea turtles have washed ashore on North Padre Island and Matagorda Island. While Sea Turtle, Inc. hasn’t had to respond to any oiled-affected sea turtles as a result of this spill, it’s important that this event serve as a reminder of how vulnerable our oceans are to oil spills and the negative effects they may have on our marine ecosystems, including sea turtles.

Oil spills may negatively impact sea turtles in many ways:

1. Indirect Ingestion: Oil particles may sink to the bottom of the ocean floor where they may kill or poison animals sea turtles eat, like shrimp and crab. Toxins from the oil in these animals will bioaccumulate in sea turtles when they’re ingested.

2. Direct Ingestion: Sea turtles do not instinctively avoid oil. Frequent visitors to Sea Turtle, Inc. know sea turtles have a brain the size of a grape! When sea turtles ingest tar-balls, mistaking them for food, it can result in organ damage, a suppressed immune system, reproductive issues, bleeding, ulcers, and gastrointestinal inflammation. If a sea turtle comes up to breathe in oiled water, oil vapors and residue could enter the turtle’s lungs. This could result in inflammation, pneumonia, and emphysema.

3. Direct Contact: Swimming through oil can irritate and inflame the skin of sea turtles, damaging their saltwater glands and mucous membranes. This could affect a sea turtle’s vision. Oiled skin may also affect a sea turtle’s ability to swim and breed. If a sea turtle nests on an oiled beach, the development of their eggs could be inhibited. Hatchlings that emerge on oiled beaches will also be negatively affected.

It has been a month since the oil spill and the area has been considerably cleaned since the event. Most of the oil ended up on Matagorda and Mustang Islands, areas Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles are currently making their way towards to nest. Ten tons of oil waste and 110 deceased oiled animals (including dolphins and sea turtles) were removed from Matagorda Island alone. Unfortunately, even after cleaning, the effects of an oil spill can last decades. For example, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill occurred in 1989, but oil can still be found in Prince William Sound, and the wildlife there is still recovering. Sometimes, even the way people clean up oil spills can be harmful for wildlife, including sea turtles. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP used chemical dispersants to break up oil on the surface of the ocean. The affect of these chemicals on wildlife and on water quality has not been tested. Burn boxes were also used, and ended up burning sea turtles as well as oil. Additionally, less damaging booms were used, but only ended up containing 3 percent of the oil spilled.

Between 1992 and 2001, there were 26 oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon event spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the same Gulf. Oil from this spill can still be found in the Gulf’s ocean floors and even washed on the Gulf’s shores. While the effects of this spill on sea turtles are still being studied, preliminary results show that annual sea turtle strandings in the affected area have dramatically increased since the Deepwater Horizon event. Most of the stranded sea turtles in this increase are our native nesters, the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles.

456 oiled turtles were collected immediately after BP’s oil spill, and others might have washed away unaccounted for; it’s also likely that many hatchlings were affected. Young sea turtles spend a lot of time on the ocean’s surface, hiding from predators and resting in floating sargassum, because they cannot swim or hold their breath as long as adult sea turtles. This makes hatchlings more likely to swim through patches of floating oil, to eat tar-balls, and makes them vulnerable if the vegetation they depended on was, itself, drowned in oil. We’ll have to wait until these hatchlings would be sexually mature in order to see if the number of nesting mamma turtles has been reduced because of hatchling mortality.

Oil seems to keep spilling into our oceans, damaging ecosystems as it does. If we want to keep our sea turtles safe, we need to find ways to prevent this- an important subject to consider as President Obama considers approving plans for a pipeline that would transport tar sands oil to the Gulf of Mexico.

If you see oiled wildlife on our shores, please call 911 on the island so that Sea Turtle, Inc. can respond, as it always has.

Mountain Lions and Us

It was very early, and I was in the mountains with my mother. The crack of dawn was apparently the best time for hiking, so there we were, while all the rest of the sane people in our area were sleeping. I shuffled behind my mother and tried to will my eyes to open to their full extent.

If I was going to be awake, I wanted to appreciate my time. I urged myself to take in my surroundings. Appreciate the dry, raw beauty of my southern California home. When all of a sudden, high up on the hillside to my left, my eyes encountered a stranger they’d never seen before: a mountain lion. She was large and beautiful, and staring at me with such intense and focused eyes.

I stared back, reveling in the animal's graceful power. Then reason returned to me, and I realized that having a stare-down with a mountain lion might not be the best idea. So I looked away and kept walking, in an effort to tell the mountain lion that I meant it no harm. I couldn’t wait to tell my mom, but I remembered to walk rather than run. That morning was not a morning for being chased down by a large predator. I walked toward my mother, and as I did, I saw the mountain lion walk away too- further up the mountain.

It was an incredible experience. I’d made eye contact with a mountain lion in the wild, and both the mountain lion and I consciously chose not to disturb each other.  

My experience is rare. Mountain lions try to avoid humans, and prefer their natural habitat over the noisy areas people are often found in-so mountain lion and man are unlikely to come into contact. But as mountain lion habitat becomes fragmented, the occurrence of man-mountain lion interactions will become more common. Mountain lions will travel long distances to find their own territory or a mate, and when habitats are fragmented, it becomes more likely for them to find themselves in urban areas. Perhaps that is what my mountain lion acquaintance was doing when she found me. Whatever she was doing, she should probably serve as a reminder that we share our home with powerful wildlife.

Should this scare us? Perhaps. But if it does, it should probably scare us more for mountain lions than for ourselves. It’s true-mountain lions can be harmful to humans. They’ve eaten pets and livestock in the past, and on extremely rare occasions, have attacked humans. But much like with bears, our interactions with mountain lions are much more likely to result in the death of the mountain lion than the death of a human. In fact, we are so deadly to mountain lions that cougars ('cougar' is a different name for a mountain lion) are more likely to die from being shot or ran over than they are to die by natural causes.

So what can we do to avoid conflict? Some may think removing a mountain lion seen near an urban area should do the trick. Unfortunately, Fish & Wildlife cannot just relocate a mountain lion that has wandered too far into a human-habited area. Mountain lions are territorial animals, and relocating one may cause the moved mountain lion to come into conflict with mountain lions in the relocation destination or simply result in the mountain lion returning back to the area he was moved from.  

And killing a curious mountain lion often doesn’t prevent conflict either. Killing one mountain lion can actually increase the frequency of mountain lion-man conflicts. This is because removing one mountain lion from an area leaves the area open for another, younger, mountain lion to claim as its territory. The younger mountain lion is often less experienced with avoiding humans than the removed mountain lion, and more likely to find itself in an urban area an older mountain lion would’ve known to avoid.

It turns out that the best way to deal with man-mountain lion conflict is to avoid conflict all together. There are some relatively easy steps people can take to avoid conflict with mountain lions:

1.     Keep pets and pet food inside at night.

2.     Keep outdoor livestock in a lion-proof enclosure, especially the vulnerable ones. If a covered enclosure is not an option, make sure the fences surrounding outdoor livestock are high.

3.     Keep brush trimmed so that deer and mountain lions cannot hide in it.

4.     Fence gardens to avoid attracting deer, which might attract mountain lions.

5.     Keep garbage cans inside or make sure they are secure so as not to attract raccoons, which may also attract mountain lions.

6.     Clean up dead livestock as soon as possible.

7.     If mountain lions persist to be seen in the area, try using non-lethal deterrents like alarm systems which make loud noises or guard dogs.

While mountain lions moving closer to us may cause some anxiety initially for the wildlife lovers among us, I have a lot of faith in Californians when it comes to their ability to peacefully coexist with cougars. This is partially because they’ve already demonstrated that mountain lions are important to them. In 1990, Californians used a successful ballot initiative to distinguish mountain lions as a “specially protected mammal” which cannot be hunted.  Even though the mountain lions in California are not considered endangered, Californians went out of their way to protect them-giving them a designation which hasn’t ever been given to another animal. Californians also helped to bass SB 132, a bill that requires Fish & Wildlife to use non-lethal methods in dealing with ‘problem’ mountain lions when possible.

I am proud to come from California, a state with beautiful wild lands and wildlife. I am proud to be amongst people who love and respect nature as much as I do. I’m proud to have grown up in a place where I was able to see a mountain lion in its natural habitat and can reasonably have faith that the following generations may be awarded the same experience.

Mountain lions are cool creatures, and if we do our best to avoid conflict, we could be sharing a landscape with them for generations to come.