Dredging company faces fines as Palm Beach project drags on into turtle nesting season
News - March 16, 2010
The Palm Beach Post reports that a dredging company faces being fined for not completing a project before the turtle nesting season starts.
The paper said it is already two weeks into sea turtle nesting season, but the dredging equipment could still could be working on the beach until April 20. March 1 was to be the completion date for the county's US$9 million contract with Weeks Marine to finish building up the 2.4-mile stretch south of Marcinski Road. Cold weather, equipment problems and a late start caused the delay, said Leanne Welch, Palm Beach County shoreline programme supervisor.
"We hate to see a delay because north county has become leatherback central," Welch said.
Last year's total of 277 leatherback sea turtle nests on Juno Beach was a record, said Ed Tichenor, director of Palm Beach County Reef Rescue.
Female leatherbacks are the first to arrive during the eight-month turtle nesting season that began March 1.
"The longer the dredging goes on, the more likely turtle deaths become," Tichenor said.
A dead 1,000-pound adult male leatherback was found floating March 9 off Juno Beach. A preliminary necropsy performed by University of Florida officials said the death was due to drowning. The death was not caused by dredging equipment, Welch said.
Louisiana-based Weeks Marine has been required since March 1 to pay researchers from the Loggerhead Marinelife Center to do hourly beach inspections in the dredge area between dusk and dawn every day to look for turtle nests. One nest was found, but it did not have to be moved, Welch said.
The county can deduct about US$1,200 from the bill from Weeks for each day the work — which goes on 24 hours a day — goes beyond March 1.
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