Turtle nest removal plan

TENS of thousands of turtle eggs will be dug from their nests around the Gulf of Mexico and taken to the Atlantic coast to hatch, in an unprecedented rescue operation that biologists hope could save a generation from death in BP's oil slick.

Biologists will relocate 700 nests from beaches in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, driving the estimated 70,000 eggs hundreds of miles to Florida's east coast, away from the tide of crude that threatens to otherwise claim them.

The protocol - drawn up over the course of the past eight weeks by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - has involved turtle experts, who agree that while there is a risk of failure, the risk of doing nothing is higher.

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"We realised early on that our expectations for success needed to be realistic. On the one hand the activities identified in the protocols are extraordinary and would never be supportable under normal conditions.

"However, taking no action would likely result in the loss of all of this year's Northern Gulf of Mexico hatchlings," explained Sandy MacPherson, national sea turtle co-ordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The plan is targeted at the loggerhead turtle, which even before the oil spill was deemed a threatened species. Wildlife officials are concerned that the deep-sea area to which baby turtles swim after hatching is now awash with crude oil.

The translocation of species is considered a strategy of last resort and there are many unknown factors that could complicate or scupper the proposed turtle rescue.

Thomas Shirley, an expert in marine biodiversity and conservation science at Texas A&M University, explained: "Usually, species have genetic adaptations for specific habitats - for example, to things like water temperature and currents. Once you move them, those adaptations may be lost and you may end up with a fairly significant mortality rate; on the other hand, the movement of the eggs may well save a year-class of turtle hatchlings."

It is also believed that when turtles emerge from their eggs and head for the surf, they "imprint" on the beach where they hatch, so recognise and return to it in later life. Biologists believe it is possible the imprinting pro-cess may occur even before they hatch, giving the babies a loyalty to that location either through its smell or magnetic position.

In moving the eggs from Florida's Gulf coast to its east coast, they therefore cannot be sure which direction the hatchlings will head - eastwards into the sea, or westwards up the beach.

Mr MacPherson explained: "Even if we get 100 eggs transferred to a box from a nest, and 100 transferred to Florida's east coast and 100 hatch and manage to crawl into the ocean, we don't know with any degree of certainty what will happen. We don't know if they will swim out to sea or spin around." Florida's beaches are the nesting grounds for one third of the world's loggerhead population.