Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
5
Viability of
Threatened Species
T HE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN AN OUT -
door magazine. I am not providing the exact reference or identifying the
location where it happened because it would needlessly embarrass the
wildlife managers responsible for oversight of this resource. However, it is
a real-world example that requires some detailed scrutiny because this kind
of management activity is routinely carried out worldwide.
We Accept Your Apology.The Turtles, Alas, Do Not
When 222 baby hawksbill turtles poked their heads out of the sand at [such and
such] National Park last September, they were intent on doing what chelonian
hatchlings do best: bumbling down the beach and into the sea to join their
brethren, only a few thousand of whom survive (a statistic that ranks the hawks-
bill as one of the world's most endangered species). Sadly, a number of them
never got that far. Seven weeks earlier, a group of earnest volunteers had cov-
ered the fragile eggs with wire to shield them from predators—and then failed
to remove the protective cage before the hatch, which began a day earlier than
anticipated. By the following afternoon, 37 of the newborns had been toasted
to death by the sun. . . . “We all have our screw-ups,” sighs the park's resource
management chief . . . “But this is the most lamentable one to date.”
What were the managers thinking? They were thinking exactly what
most people would if they understood the plight of many sea turtle popu-
lations worldwide.We have probably all seen on television (or lucky enough
to witness in person) the annual ritual of adult female sea turtles coming
ashore on sandy beaches to dig nest holes and lay their eggs; only to have
marauding nest predators eat up most of those eggs. From a human value
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