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Activist asks court to halt dredging
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
keysnews.com
KEY WEST — The
director of the Marathon Turtle Hospital has filed legal papers
attempting to stop the dredging of Main Ship Channel and part of Key
West Harbor until protocols that protect sea turtles can be put in
place.
Richie Moretti
filed a letter Tuesday that spells out his intentions to sue the
Department of Commerce, National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers and U.S. Navy for violating the federal Endangered
Species Act. The letter is required before Moretti can file a lawsuit
against the government.
Moretti is
asking the company hired to dredge the shipping channel to place a
fishing trawler in front of its hopper dredger to scoop up or move
turtles out of the way.
The Navy plans
to begin dredging by the end of the week and will not alter its plans
unless ordered by a federal judge, Navy spokeswoman Kelly Hinchey said.
"We have the
permit that tells us what to do," Hinchey said. "Unless a judge tells us
not to, we are going to begin dredging."
Moretti and
his attorney are considering filing a civil injunction stopping the
dredge until stricter requirements are put into place, Moretti said.
Moretti
contends the Navy has violated its permit because it states that the
agency has to do further consultation with National Marine Fisheries if
new information is uncovered about turtle populations and habitats
before or as dredging commences, Moretti said. Moretti gave the Army
Corps of Engineers information on habitat and population after the Navy
was issued a permit, he said.
The permit
allows for the death of three loggerheads, one Kemp's Ridley or one
green turtle, before dredging is halted and an assessment can be done.
Green turtles are on the federal endangered species list and loggerheads
are on the threatened species list, Moretti said. Last year, there were
only four nests of sea turtle eggs laid in Key West. If there are two or
three nesting turtles, they could be the killed in the dredging, he
said.
The New
Orleans-based dredging firm Bean Stuyvesant plans to use a hopper
dredger called the Eagle 1. Hopper dredgers suck up sand, rock and other
debris from the sea floor and chop the material into smaller pieces. The
hoppers have been known to do the same to turtles.
Bean
Stuyvesant plans to place a turtle deflector, similar to a cow pusher on
a train, on the front of the hopper dredger to push the turtles out of
the way.
tohara@keysnews.com |
