Suit: US ship canal dredging in summer threatens sea turtles

FILE - In this July 5, 2019, file photo provided by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, a loggerhead sea turtle returns to the ocean after nesting on Ossabaw Island, Ga. A conservation group has again filed suit over a U.S. agency's planned timeframe for dredging a shipping channel on the Georgia coast, arguing that using machines to suck sediments from the harbor floor during summertime poses a dire threat to rare sea turtles. SAVANNAH, Ga.

Giant loggerhead sea turtles, protected as a federally threatened species, nest during the spring and summer months on beaches from North Carolina to Florida. Smaller numbers of endangered green and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles lay eggs in the region as well.from conducting year-round dredging in Georgia. In September, a different judge halted a similar plan in North Carolina. Both judges ruled that the agency failed to adequately assess potential dangers to legally protected sea turtle species.

“We are fighting the same battles again, but the message remains the same: Hopper dredging and sea turtle nesting season just don’t mix,” said Catherine Ridley of the conservation group One Hundred Miles. “If you come in right when we have reproducing females in those very waters, they are sitting ducks."

The lawsuit cites a contract the Army Corps awarded in September for a private company to dredge harbors over the next year in Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; and Savannah and Brunswick in Georgia. A bid solicitation posted in July specified that dredging at each location would take place during the traditional seasonal window between December and March.

Army Corps officials have said that seasonal restrictions make it difficult to compete for a limited number of contractors. They have also argued that seasonal windows timed to protect sea turtles ignore other species such as critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, which frequent the same waters during winter.

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