This week’s article is
a bit dated, but it contains some really valuable information. The first
sentence is very blunt, and I quote, “Volusia County won the right to allow
vehicles on the beach until 2030, through a federal permit granted Friday that
keeps beach driving in place despite the potential harm to endangered animals.”
That’s a big deal! The article tries to justify this decision by stating the
following: the harm to turtles is minimal, the county compensates by
restricting driving areas/times, tourism, and of course tradition. Why break
tradition for an endangered species, right? Ha!
While these ideas are nice,
they don’t really justify anything. Driving on the beach will never be good, or even neutral, for marine/coastal
animals and their habitats. Beach driving is a very unnatural thing; there is
no way around that statement.
Let’s look at a few
reasons why:
- Vehicle fluid leakage
- Tire ruts
- Compaction/movement of sargassum
 |
Sargassum habitats provide food and protection for many
animals
|
- Noise pollution (radios, engines, etc.)
These are just a few of
the reasons why beach driving is bad for sea turtles and other marine animals. The
important thing to note is that sea turtles and beach driving are not separated,
both in space and time. The first three reasons are not dependent on a vehicle
being present twenty-four seven. Overall, we need to look at things from different
perspectives before we make decisions.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Comments from last week:
Deb 'n Paul
Now that you have
researched a great deal of info on sea turtles and beach driving, what do you
think you might like to explore; how would you do it and what would you
measure?
I have been asking myself the same question for weeks! I
think it would be interesting to measure the amount of sea turtle nests on driving
beaches vs. non-driving beaches from the past few years. I would have to do
some searching for the data, but I think it would be worth it.
I like that idea! You seem to have already made some good contacts on your trips to the beach. Maybe one of them could direct you to some online data. Certainly the folks doing turtle nesting surveys might have the data. Locating and evaluating online data can be a useful tool for scientists.
ReplyDelete