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Loggerheads nesting on Florida beaches are washin gup dead on Texas shores!
DEADLINE: May 31, 2000
Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) has proposed closing the South Texas coast to shrimp trawling as a key element of its revised shrimp management regulations. This is the first step in creating a Marine Reserve (more information about a Texas Marine Reserve). Texas Governor George W. Bush and the state leadership of Texas need to hear from people around the country NOW or the proposal could be killed by the shrimp industry. They must hear from us and see a huge show of support before a key May 31 TPWD regulatory committee meeting. If you are from Florida please stress that Texas’s failure to protect sea turtles is compromising Florida’s sea turtle protection program!!
Every year during the shrimp fishing season hundreds of loggerhead and Kemp’s ridley turtles are incidentally captured and killed in shrimp trawls along the Texas coast despite federal regulations that require shrimp boats use turtle excluder devices (TEDs) in their nets to protect sea turtles. This yearly sea turtle carnage in Texas waters has resulted in a national outcry by conservation groups and sea turtle biologists and a call for the establishment of a no-commercial fishing marine reserve along Padre Island on the south Texas coast. The number of turtle deaths declines significantly during the annual Texas closure which prohibits shrimp fishing in state and federal waters (out to 200 miles from shore) from mid-May through mid-July.
Scientific research indicates that a large percentage of the loggerheads foraging and spending time along the Texas coast actually nest on Florida’s beaches during the summer months. Consequently Texas’s refusal to enforce sea turtle protection measures is directly compromising the efforts of thousands of Floridians dedicated to the protection of Florida’s nesting sea turtles and their nesting beaches.
Loggerheads, as well as Kemp's ridleys, need added protections along Texas shores. Texas is a hot spot for strandings of the Kemp's ridley, the most endangered sea turtle in the world. Now it's clear that threatened loggerheads protected on Florida beaches, as well as in other states and Mexico, also face danger when traveling the Texas coast.
Stranded loggerheads in Texas are most likely from the nesting populations in south Florida, where the state and non-profit groups spend millions on extensive sea turtle recovery efforts. These efforts are wasted when the sea turtles are killed in Texas waters, mostly drowning in the nets of the state's large shrimping fleet.
Texas Gov. George Bush has taken no effective action to stop sea turtle deaths in Texas and the state has no sea turtle recovery plan. In contrast, in Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush has supported sea turtle recovery and sea turtles receive high levels of protection. The state of Florida, coastal counties, and private foundations have invested tens of millions to buy and protect Florida’s nesting beaches and the coast is protected by a 3-mile net ban.
Some of the stranded loggerheads may also be coming from the northern stock of loggerhead turtles that nest in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, all states with active sea turtle recovery programs.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Please write, fax or email Texas Gov. George W. Bush now. Copy the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission and key coastal legislators.
Please write your own letter. Here is a sample letter, but please add your own words and thoughts to the letter. Essentially just insist that Gov. Bush stop the killing of sea turtles along the Texas coast and support the establishment of a marine reserve that is off limits to commercial shrimping.
Contact Information:
Governor George W. Bush
Officer of the Governor
P. O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711-2428
Phone: 512-463-1782
FAX: 512-463-1849 (Governor's Office)
or 512-637-8800 (Bush for President)
TPWD COMMISSIONERS
| Honorable Lee Marshall Bass, Chairman
Parks and Wildlife Commission
201 Main Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
817-390-8400
FAX - (817) 390-8408 |
Honorable Carol E. Dinkins, Vice-Chair
Parks and Wildlife Commission
1001 Fannin, Suite 2416
Houston, TX 77002-6760
713-758-2528
FAX - (713) 615-5311 |
| Honorable Ernest Angelo, Jr., Member
Parks and Wildlife Commission
410 North Main
Midland, TX 79701
915-684-4449
FAX - (915) 684-7691 |
Honorable John Avila, Jr., Member
Parks and Wildlife Commission
900 Summit Avenue
Fort Worth, TX 76102
817-335-3394
FAX - (817) 877-5507
javila@tsbyrne.com |
| Honorable Richard W. (Dick) Heath, Member
Parks and Wildlife Commission
2121 Midway Road
Carrollton, TX 75006
972-934-1518
FAX - (972) 341-3098 |
Honorable Al Henry, Member
Parks and Wildlife Commission
P. O. Box 111157
Houston, TX 77293-0157
713-631-1483
FAX - (713) 631-3959 |
| Honorable Katharine Armstrong Idsal, Member
Parks and Wildlife Commission
4519 Westway Avenue
Dallas, TX 75205
214-522-6035
FAX - (214) 522-2793 |
Honorable Nolan Ryan, Member
Parks and Wildlife Commission
P. O. Box 670
Alvin, TX 77512
281-585-1722
FAX - (281) 585-2238 |
| Honorable Mark E. Watson, Member
Parks and Wildlife Commission
P. O. Box 6886
San Antonio, TX 78209
210-824-4546
FAX - (210) 824-0166 |
Perry R. Bass, Chairman-Emeritus
Parks and Wildlife Commission
201 Main Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102
817-390-8400
FAX - (817) 338-2699 |
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