Ocean Roundup: Baby Sea Turtles Tracked with Tiny Tags, Canada Restricts Large Area from Commercial Fishing, and More | Oceana
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October 22, 2014

Ocean Roundup: Baby Sea Turtles Tracked with Tiny Tags, Canada Restricts Large Area from Commercial Fishing, and More

Sea turtles in Bald Head Island, North Carolina, USA.

 

– For years, scientists have used satellite tags to track adult sea turtles and learn more about their behavior, but technology didn’t exist to sufficiently study smaller sea turtle hatchlings. Now, scientists have used nanoacoustic tags to track baby sea turtles’ movements after West Africa during their first few days in the ocean. Science

– Last week, Canada restricted a 420,000-square-mile area in the Beaufort Sea from commercial fishing in order to protect its marine life and give Inuit communities a priority in small-scale fishing. Some say that the move is a step forward for the Arctic and for helping Canada become a leader in Arctic conservation. The Wall Street Journal

– Last week, dozens of short-finned pilot whales put on quite the show for whale watchers off Southern California. The pilot whales were once common off the Southern Californian coast, but they have been rarely spotted in the area since a strong El Nino in the 1980s. The Weather Channel

More than 7,000 Louisiana residents have called on Governor Bobby Jindal to increase protections for sea turtles in Louisiana waters by requiring shrimp trawling vessels to be equipped with turtle excluder devices (TEDs). Louisiana is currently the only state to prohibit the federally-required TEDs in the shrimp trawl fishery. WDSU New Orleans

Long Read:

 – A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists warns that many East Coast and Gulf of Mexico communities can expect a rise in coastal flooding over the next 30 years. This flooding has severe implications for infrastructure and local businesses, but the report authors argue that if state and federal governments take action to reduce emissions, some of the worst effects of this flooding can be avoided. CNN