By Karen Steele

Endangered sea turtles. These graceful creatures have long fascinated people and for years the United States has played a lead role globally in their protection.

But the tide could be turning. The government is now seemingly more interested in rolling back conservation measures than protecting the last of the sea turtles, particularly along the California coast.

At a time when all seven species of sea turtles are considered endangered, and the Pacific leatherback sea turtle - over 100 million years old - is on the verge of extinction, decisive action is needed to protect these species. And this has been the role that the United States once played.

They led the way in the early 1990s by developing and implementing Turtle Excluder Devices for shrimp trawlers that provide sea turtles an escape hatch from shrimp nets.  This saved their lives by the thousands and 20 other countries soon followed suit.

 In 1999, a role-model conservation effort was implemented when the Hawaii swordfish longline fishery was closed to protect endangered sea turtles.

In 2001 these efforts turned to focus on protecting Leatherbacks that visit California waters. A Leatherback Conservation Area was declared to protect a critical habitat area for leatherback sea turtles that are found along the California-Oregon coast.

This protection banned drift gillnet fishing, which has a high rate of sea turtle capture, from Monterey Bay to the mid-Oregon coast between August to November each year while leatherbacks are visiting to feed almost entirely on jellyfish.

As these turtles are critically endangered and have traveled across the entire Pacific ocean (over 6000 miles) from Indonesia to the California coast, it seems they have earned the right to be provided this basic protection.  

Finally, in 2004, the US West Coast within 200 miles from shore was closed to longline fishing in a further effort to protect endangered sea turtles.

Recently, however, the tide seems to be changing – at the least the West Coast tide - for sea turtles in California , and not for the best.

Attempts are being made to rollback the Leatherback Conservation Area. This is despite the area being closed precisely because it was found the survival of the Pacific leatherback sea turtle would be placed in jeopardy otherwise.

Nothing has changed – the same boats using the same nets will be fishing in the same area and the leatherbacks are now in even further decline. This decision is to be announced mid-September.

In 2004 the Hawaii swordfish longline fishery was reopened, with the claim new hook technologies would solve the problem of sea turtle capture. This was short-lived with the fishery being shut down prematurely due to its high capture of endangered sea turtles.

Though it seems little was learned from this experience. There are now plans in progress to spend federal dollars to test the exact same hooks on the California coast.  This would be overriding a historical state law that has banned longline fishing in California waters for over a decade.

The question we should be asking at this time, when the Pacific leatherback sea turtle is at historically low levels – as little as 2,300 nesting females left from over 90,000 just two decades ago - is whether the United States wants to be celebrated for its efforts to help bring this species back from the brink, or be seen as contributing to its decline.

Let’s keep the tide turning good by keeping these role model protections in place!

Karen Steele is the Save the Leatherback Campaign Coordinator for the Sea Turtle Restoration Project based in Forest Knolls, Marin County , California , PO Box 400 Forest Knolls, CA 94933 415-488-0379, ext. 106 karen@seaturtles.org