Logging and the Decline of Sea Turtles

Logging, which is the process of cutting down trees to have wood for homes and buildings, is one of the detrimental factors that are causing sea turtles to stay on the endangered species list. When trees are cut down, many of them fall in the ocean and float to nearby shores where sea turtles lay their eggs. Since sea turtles travel slowly, the logs that washed up on shore prevent many turtles from laying eggs because of the amount of energy it takes them to crawl around the logs. Ultimately, sea turtles would rather crawl back to the ocean rather than waste energy maneuvering around the logs that are in their way of laying eggs. The “sloppy logging practices” are primarily taking place in Gabon, located in Africa. William Laurance, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute says, “It’s really sad to see what the logs are doing to the turtles. Sea turtles move very slowly on land. When a log blocks their path, sometimes they just give up and return to the sea. In other cases they lay their eggs too close to the water line, where the eggs are killed by the seawater. Turtles also become entangled among the logs and die.”

Humans are causing the sea turtles to die and are also contributing to many of the eggs being destroyed by seawater. Since the eggs are being washed away by the tides, they baby turtles are not able to fully develop in their nests, thus, there are less sea turtles being born each year in Gabon due to the increase of “sloppy logging.” If humans continue to let logs float into the ocean, sea turtles may disappear from Gabon. Sea turtles are already endangered and are already “threatened by fishing, environmental degradation and predation” but they may go extinct if humans continue to destroy their nesting spots.

I think that it is terrible that humans know that they are endangering sea turtles, but they are still destroying the nesting spots for them. If people continue to log then they are going to continue to destroy the sea turtle’s habitats, as well as others’. By being “sloppy” when logging, it means that the loggers are letting the trees float into the ocean and not doing anything to stop the trees if they fall into the water. It would be a good idea to build some kind of blockade or barrier around where the logging is being done so the trees do not float into the ocean. If the logging companies can stop the trees from floating into the ocean by a simple barrier, then it is possible for sea turtles to lay their eggs in a safe zone in Gabon and ultimately not die on land due to being trapped by washed up logs. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080314160222.htm

Kristen Schindler