If
you find a sea turtle in trouble in Rhode Island, you can
now call a 24/7 hotline. The R.I. Sea Turtle Disentanglement
Hotline is Sea Grant’s R.I. Sea Turtle Disentanglement
Program co-coordinators David Beutel and Malia Schwartz.
"Since all sea turtles are listed as
either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species
Act, our being able to respond to and disentangle any sea
turtle becomes critically important," says Schwartz.
The program has trained a group of experienced people and
enlisted a cadre of boats to respond to turtle entanglement
calls. Launched this summer, the disentanglement program is
run by the Rhode Island Sea Grant Sustainable Fisheries Extension
Program in partnership with NOAA's National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), the federal agency charged with protecting
and recovering sea turtles.
"Most people don't realize that we have
sea turtles in New England waters," says Schwartz, Rhode
Island Sea Grant marine turtle extension specialist. "The
leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles are most common in
Rhode Island waters in the summer as they follow their food
sources north along the western Atlantic.
Background: Unfortunately, this is also where
and why they get tangled in fishing gear. "They're attracted
to the critters growing on or swimming around buoy lines,
for example," says Schwartz, who has been studying turtles
and entanglement issues for 16 years. "Then, they'll
get a line wrapped around their flipper and they panic, further
entangling themselves." David Beutel, Rhode Island Sea
Grant fisheries extension specialist, feels that most commercial
fishermen enjoy knowing that the sea turtles are in Rhode
Island waters.
Significance: Beutel and Schwartz hope
that people will call the hotline to report entangled turtles.
Responses to entangled or stranded sea turtles in New England
are managed by NOAA Fisheries through the Northeast Region
Sea Turtle Disentanglement Network, a partnership of trained
and authorized organizations such as Rhode Island Sea Grant.
The immediate goal of the program is disentanglement, and
the long-term goal is to prevent them, while learning more
about the natural history of these rare turtles.
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