Surprise discovery of endangered turtles could make the case for restoring Louisiana islands
Kemp’s ridleys are among the rarest turtles in the sea
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Louisiana’s Chandeleur Islands, a 50-mile-long arc of sand and sea grass, have long been in a state of decline. However, coastal activists hope the discovery of a highly endangered sea turtle species nesting there will help make the case for restoring the island chain.
State biologists first confirmed the presence of Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nests in 2022, the first such sightings in Louisiana in 75 years.
A proposed restoration project funded by the Deepwater Horizon settlement aims to restore the island chain to improve nesting habitat for water birds. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, as project managers surveyed the site in summer 2022 from a seaplane, they spotted tracks from nesting Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. Someone from the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority reportedly saw a hatchling scurrying toward water and captured it on film.
“In terms of its importance to wildlife, I would say it is the single most important place on the northern Gulf Coast,” said David Muth, a coastal consultant.
Teams later discovered a previously hatched Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nest and concluded that 76 hatchlings had emerged.
The islands are also home to brown pelicans and tens of thousands of nesting birds from other species.
Hurricane Katrina did a number of the islands, blowing a new cut through one of them.
“When a hurricane takes these islands down, there will be a few years where there may be no attempt to nest out there,” Muth said.
Saving the islands poses all kinds of challenges, not the least of which is the roughly $300 million estimated construction cost.
“The most endangered sea turtle in the world, using this habitat as sort of the last bastion in the state of Louisiana, it’s all the more reason to restore those ecosystems,” said Bren Haase, a former Chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
- Coastal projects could repair some of the bite Ida took out of LA.
- Plaquemines Parish to propose alternative to Louisiana’s largest coastal project
- Louisiana’s new CPRA leader wants to rock the coast
- ‘Cajun Coral’ breathes new life into historic Pelican Island
State leaders have the money to design a restoration project, but hope to cobble together the funding from a variety of sources, including fines associated with the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I don’t think that you can correlate money to our culture and our heritage and our way of life being lost,” said Polly Glover, Project Coordinator for the group Restore or Retreat. “How do you put a dollar figure on that?”
Barrier islands are often called the first line of defense against hurricanes. However, surge experts for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have said this island chain is now so remote that hurricanes roll over the islands with plenty of time for the surge to rebuild.
Advocates argue there are other considerations.
“There aren’t that many places in the world that belong to everybody, but actually belong to no human,” said Mel Landry, marine habitat specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “The Chandeleur Islands is one of those.”
State leaders feel a sense of urgency as the islands continue to disappear.
“It’s so expensive to go back and build something that is no longer there, when there’s not a foundation to build on,” Landry said. “We have still have a foundation out there on the Chandeleur Islands. let’s restore it while we can.”
Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.
Copyright 2024 WVUE. All rights reserved.
