A loggerhead sea turtle coming ashore to lay its eggs was crushed by a vehicle at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, an incident likely to ratchet up the contentious debate over how much access off-road vehicles should have at the seashore.
The incident comes as seashore officials are pulling together a final Environmental Impact Statement on a proposed management plan for ORVs driving on the seashore's beaches. Seashore officials discovered the dead turtle Thursday morning about 50 feet from the Atlantic Ocean.
"We don’t know if it happened late the night of the 23rd or early morning of the 24th," Thayer Broili, the seashore's resource management chief, said Friday morning. "It happened on Ocracoke Island, towards the southern end of the Ocracoke Island, between two of the ramps, 70 and 72. We’ve reported it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and our rangers are doing an investigation."
Loggerhead turtles are a threatened species throughout their range under the Endangered Species Act. Adults can have a shell ranging up to 3 feet in length, and can top out at 250 pounds, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Females don't reach sexual maturity until they're 35 years old, according to the agency.
Photos of the dead turtle clearly show that the vehicle rode right over it and then apparently became high-centered, as the driver backed up in an effort to free his rig, according to Chief Broili.
"In all likelihood it was an off-road vehicle to even be there," the chief said. "And they drug it about 12 feet. It appears that they stopped. They realized that they run over something and got out and looked and ran back over it. The turtle was a pregnant female that came ashore to lay its eggs and apparently it was migrating up or down the beach. We did recover some eggs the next morning, which we have transplanted to a nest, we don’t know if they’ll survive or not.”
While three species of sea turtles -- threatened green sea turtles, endangered leatherback sea turtles, and threatened loggerhead turtles -- come ashore to nest at Cape Hatteras, to date it has been a tiny bird -- the piping plover -- that seemingly casts the greatest shadow over the seashore’s management. These grayish-white birds with a black neck band, yellow legs, and a distinctive chirp are somewhat curious in their preference for nesting habitat, as they make small bowl-like depressions in the sand to lay eggs that blend in so well they can easily be overlooked and, unfortunately, easily crushed by feet and tires and available to predators.
Unfortunately, for Cape Hatteras beach-goers, these birds nest from late spring through July, and restrictions imposed to protect the birds block some stretches of seashore from those who prefer to drive their vehicles on the beach.
Now, though, the attention has been shifted dramatically to the plight of sea turtles that come ashore to nest. The seashore's sea turtle population has been doing relatively well in recent years. Last year the 104 verified nests were far above the 43 counted just five years ago. Those 2009 nests also produced roughly 5,000 turtle hatchlings, according to the seashore's annual sea turtle report.
Despite the relative boom in turtle nesting in 2009, there was no direct connection last year between ORVs and a sea turtle's death on Cape Hatteras, although there were some minor infractions, according to the seashore's annual report.
ORV violations of turtle closures were relatively rare. There were several accounts of vehicles driving below (i.e. ocean-side of) the expanded turtle closures in the morning before any washed out signs in the intertidal zone could be replaced. It is unknown how many hatchlings, if any, were affected by these actions, either by being run over or by being stuck in tire tracks. There were no observed losses to this type of violation, although it is known that hatchlings were emerging from NO30 (a green nest) during the same night that some of these violations took place (see above)
That said, there were at least two notable exceptions to that observation:
NBH10: On the morning of July 26th, staff on turtle patrol for the Bodie Hatteras District noticed that a nest closure was “missing” in the tri-village area. After going back through the area, she found that someone had removed the four signs, string, flagging, and PVC poles that were surrounding the nest site. Two of the signs were later found 0.2 miles down the beach. One sign was found behind the primary dune line with the PVC poles and the fourth sign was never recovered. Many sets of pedestrian footprints were found over the nest site. The eggs were checked and the closure re-installed at the expanded size. As the nest had a good success, it is unlikely that this incident resulted in any harm to the nest itself.
NH33: On the morning of September 2, staff on the turtle patrol for the Hatteras South run noticed that string was down at the NH33 nest site, which was an expanded closure just north of Ramp 49. It was found that a vehicle had driven though the sting at one end of the closure, run through the filter fencing, and then exited the closure by driving through the string at the other end. It is unknown whether the vehicle was also in violation of the CD nighttime driving restriction. The filter fencing was repaired and the closure expanded. There was no observed damage to the actual nest.
Chief Broili said this week's incident is the first anyone can recall in which a vehicle killed a sea turtle. The seashore's chief ranger on Ocracoke Island has been with the Park Service for 33 years, and grew up on the island, "and he said this is the first time that he’s aware of this ever happening," said the chief.
The section of beach where the turtle was killed is closed to vehicles overnight beginning at 10 p.m. under the seashore's temporary ORV regulations.
"We have night-driving regulations and everybody is supposed to be off the beach by 10 o’clock," said Chief Broili. "We think this happened after that, but we have no way to prove it.”
The incident comes just as turtle nesting on the national seashore is ramping up, according to the chief. So far 37 or 38 nests have been counted, he said.
"Overall, the past couple years have been very good for our turtles. We still don’t know what the overall season will be," said Chief Broili, "but this one poor individual got caught in a bad situation.”
Park Service rangers are being aided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents in investigating the matter.
“Who knows what this guy was doing," said Chief Broili. "It would seem that anybody who was driving down the beach at night with their lights on would see it. Who knows? This person could have been under the influence, young kids, relatively young people who were just ripping around not paying attention to what they were doing. Who knows? It’s not out of the realm of possibility that they did this intentionally.
"Who knows what the motives of people are?" he added. "They definitely knew that something had happened."
Comments
I just finished two years of documenting Sea Turtles on Miami Beach.
I was also a permited volunteer.
There are some real heartless people down here.
The things people do to our turtles is Unbelievable.
Judging from the photos, this person ran this turtle over on purpose.
Turtle Dude
@RangerLady
Agreed. Thanks for a calm, sensible response, which is often hard to find on this subject. It is very difficult for somebody even in good shape to walk that long a distance, to Cape Point, say, (when it's open) with all that gear. And, as you say, this was likely done by some foolish person, probably not a fisherman. If headlights were on, a 3-foot sea turtle is not easy to miss. (Unless it was intentional). SalvoJimmy makes sense that somebody was trying to get past Consent Decree by driving without lights on, which is pretty foolish, even in a near-full moon.
I think I'm inferring from SalvoJimmy's post that he believes Consent Decree is to blame for this sea turtle's death. I can't follow that. It sounds like he's saying "Environmental (or as he mentions, gun control) laws will be broken, so we shouldn't have them."?
Jim
It is pretty clear you know very little about Cape Hatteras National Seashore. There are very few access points to the beaches, let alone available parking, for beach goers. Driving is the only way for access many areas. Besides I guess it is perfectly ok with you for those of us with disabilities and can't walk long distance to be disallowed from enjoying the beach.
The "My right to drive on the beach trumps other species right to exist" contingent of the access groups are already accusing NPS staff of killing the turtle.
http://forum.reddrumtackle.com/showthread.php?p=148902#post148902
These people are shameless.
I have never posted here before, but the photo of the poor turtle truly sickens me. I have no sympathy for anyone complaining about beach closures and access.
If you live in the Cape Hatteras area, you can get to a beach. You may not be able to visit the section of beach you want, but you are not being denied the right to visit any and all beach space. There is plenty of beach for you. And about access, I know that walking isn't fun, especially with gear and all, but if you are an able-bodied person, can't you just do it anyway??
Seriously, does everything have to be about the convenience and pleasure of humans??
We have taken over just about every corner of this planet with little to absolute no regard for our fellow species, can the turtles and piping plovers not have just this one tiny section of land on which they can be safe??
And to the person comparing this incident to killing an animal on the highway-roads are man-made structures built specifically for driving. The beach is not a road! No one needs to drive on the beach! But it's really all just about us, isn't it??
The people who did this were in violation of the consent decree, and while this may be the first time a nesting turtle has been brutally and intentionally killed, it is certainly not the first time that those on the pro-driving-on-the-beach side have broken the law because they don't like it when rules apply to them. (Also, this article does not mention it but at least one ORV destroyed a nearby nest as well.) For the person who thinks all this is justified because otherwise disabled people wouldn't be able to enjoy the beach, do your homework. There are beach wheelchairs available and many Florida beaches make them available free of charge for those who need them. No need to drive on the beach. It is really amazing that these lazy rednecks (who admit here that it is all about convenience -- waaaah, you have to be in good shape to walk that far, waaahh) claim that their situation is like what is happening to those affected by the BP spill. Seriously? Why stop there? Why not claim you're just like the Jews in the Halocaust, only you're the victims of heartless educated normal people who think you can walk ... down to the surf like people everywhere else in the country do? Why not claim the environmentalists are like jihadists flying planes into your economic double-wides? What needs to happen is A) the consent decree should be vacated due to repeated violations by the access crowd. B) this article needs to be seen by everyone who rents those huge beach houses all along the OBX (houses that the access crowd could not afford to rent, btw) and they need to flex their economic muscle and say ENOUGH. No one NEEDS to drive on the beach. Build some drive-on piers like they have in Florida and aside from that it is authorized vehicles only.
To the people who say there are no parking areas and beach accesses... um, are you blind? They are everywhere along NC 12. I was there 2 weeks ago and stopped at several between Rodanthe and Hatteras and had no trouble finding parking.
The ignorant comments here and on all the other message boards from the "we hate animals and those who love them" and the "F&^* the plovers and turtles" crowd are really, in the end, a very good thing. They show the hateful and juvenile mentality of the access crowd, and believe me, these comments are all viewed by the actual decision makers who will decide the fate of the ORV management plan. So, keep it up.....
This comment was edited. -- Ed.
I'm not saying there should be no rules. Driving between 2200-0600 is banned under the CD (consent decree) and the turtle was run over. Thus driving during the CD curfew without lights so as not to get caught was a likely contributor. But adding further driving restriction as many advocate will not likely help.
Deterrent and punishment for existing rule violations are usually much more effective than an added restrictive rules.
Some of us asked that we be allowed to drive onto the beach before the curfew, park with no lights and not drive off until after the curfew. We could have enjoyed the beach at night doing whatever, been no threat to turtles and certainly deter violators as well as even report them. We were denied with the excuse that sooner or later someone would move a vehicle during the curfew. Well someone did move one and they ran over a turtle.
And before someone says why don't you just walk out there and stay the night. Well sometimes there is a rain storm, many times with lightning, blowing sand, sometimes the wind dies and the bugs swarms, etc. The parked vehicle is shelter. And as some point out it can carry some stuff. Think potty for the 8+ hour stay along with maybe a chair and a cooler with food / drink.
Accidents happen. I'm sure this wasn't done on purpose. And as for Hatteras's "ATTITUDE", we take care of our beachs. We Care for our wildlife. We care for our lively hood. The tourists are more responsible for the destruction of the beachs and wildlife. So before you make a snotty comment about our "attitude", why not come down and see how we handle ourselves. Or better yet, let me take from you something that makes not only you but your entire town more well more than half of its yearly income. Something that was granted to you years ago.