Global News - February 2008

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Logging threatens African sea turtles

Wed 27 February 2008 13:00 UK — Africa,Marine Wildlife

Logging in the central African country of Gabon is threatening nesting populations of endangered leatherback turtles, a new study has revealed.

Research, undertaken by an international team and published in the journal Oryx, discovered that logs lost during transport clogged up as much as 30 per cent of the beaches at an important breeding ground for the turtles.

The study, reported by Mongabay.com, indicated that the logs affect the turtles in a number of ways, including blocking their path to and from the sea and trapping them, sometimes resulting in fatalities.

Commenting on the findings, the report's authors, who include William F Laurence of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, claimed that the effect of the logging on the turtles was symptomatic of a wider problem.

"Our findings bolster the notion that important linkages exist between terrestrial and marine ecosystems," they said.

"Coral reefs, for example, can be seriously degraded by sedimentation from nearby deforestation."

Global efforts to preserve sea turtle populations were boosted by the news that nine previously ill animals had been released back into the ocean in Florida after being nursed to health by local conservationists.

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