Vast protected area proposed for leatherbacks of California West Coast

Peter Fimrite, SF Gate 5 Jan 10;

The battle to save Pacific leatherback turtles from extinction prompted federal biologists on Tuesday to propose designating 70,000 square miles of ocean along the West Coast as critical habitat for the giant reptiles.

The designation by the National Oceanographic Atmospheric and Administration would mark the first time critical habitat has ever been established in the open ocean for the endangered leatherbacks, which swim 6,000 miles every year to eat jellyfish outside the Golden Gate.

If approved, the regulations would restrict projects that harm the turtles or their food. The government would be required to review and, if necessary, regulate agricultural waste, pollution, oil spills, power plants, oil drilling, storm water runoff and liquid natural gas projects along the California coast between Long Beach and Mendocino County and off the Oregon and Washington coasts.

Environmentally friendly aquaculture, tidal, wave turbine and desalination projects would also come under scrutiny.

"This is a very positive step forward for the conservation of these ancient leatherback turtles," said Ben Enticknap, the Pacific project manager for Oceana, an international nonprofit dedicated to protecting the world's oceans. "The proposed designation is an important tool that will advance the conservation of leatherbacks when they are migrating and feeding. It's a big step for the United States and a policy precedent for the world."

The proposed regulations would not cover commercial fishing.

Leatherbacks, known scientifically as Dermochelys coriacea, are the largest sea turtles in the world, sometimes measuring 9 feet long and weighing as much as three refrigerators, or more than 1,200 pounds. Their lifespan is not fully known, but biologists believe they live at least 40 years and possibly as long as 100 years.
Long swims

Listed as endangered since 1970 under the Endangered Species Act, Pacific leatherbacks leave their nesting grounds in Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea in late summer and fall and swim across the Pacific Ocean to forage along the West Coast. It is the longest known migration of any marine reptile.

The proposed regulations, which will be reviewed for a year before final approval, would restrict activities that harm jellyfish or prevent turtles from reaching the grounds where they eat the gelatinous delicacies.

The protected areas proposed for the imperiled sea turtles include popular feeding areas and migration routes extending up to 200 miles out to sea. They include the central coast of California between Point Arena, in Mendocino County, and Point Vicente, in Los Angeles County, according to documents released by the NOAA Fisheries Service.
Three-state area

The entire coast of Washington and the northern two-thirds of Oregon between the Columbia and Umpqua rivers would also be covered. In all, 70,600 square miles of ocean would be considered turtle habitat. The only existing protected areas are nesting beaches on the U.S. Virgin Islands and surrounding waters.

The regulations are a response to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco last May by the nonprofit environmental groups Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Center for Biological Diversity and Oceana. The groups had been trying since 2007 to establish critical habitat for leatherbacks under the Endangered Species Act. They accused the government of failing to protect the reptiles from gillnet and longline fishing, oil drilling and a variety of other activities, including wave-energy projects.

"We want to find sustainable energy," Enticknap said, "but we still have to do those projects in a way that won't harm critical habitat for sea turtles or other marine life."
No fishing

The lack of any prohibitions against commercial fishing upset conservationists who claim the long lines and nets dragged by oceangoing vessels kill thousands of turtles. Longline fishing is already banned and gillnet fishing is not allowed along the West Coast during leatherback migration, but Teri Shore, program director for the Turtle Island Restoration Network, said more needs to be done to prevent regulations from being loosened in the future.

"The agency has turned a blind eye to commercial fishing as an impact to the habitat of the turtle," Shore said. "We will be pushing for them to add commercial fishing to the list of activities that will be monitored."

Only between 2,000 and 5,700 nesting female western Pacific leatherback sea turtles are left in the world, according to Shore. Overall, she said, the leatherback population has been reduced 90 percent over the past 20 years due to commercial fishing, egg poaching, destruction of nesting habitat, degradation of foraging habitat and changing ocean conditions.

A 60 day public comment period will now be held. The government will then have a year to make a final decision on the proposed regulations.
Read the rule

The proposed rule can be found at links.sfgate.com/ZJAV.