Endeavors magazine: Lethal lights at sea

Lethal lights at sea

by Mark Derewicz

Sea turtles see the light, and thousands of them are dying because of it.

Carolina biologist Ken Lohmann and former UNC grad student John Wang determined that endangered sea turtles are attracted to the same light-sticks that fishermen use to attract tuna and swordfish. Then turtles get hooked or ensnared on fishermen’s longlines.

Researchers placed turtles into soft cloth harnesses and tethered them to electronic tracking devices in the center of a large, water-filled tank that simulated the ocean. When the researchers introduced glowing light-sticks of several colors and types into the tank, turtles swam steadily toward them. But when the lights were inactivated, turtles ignored them.

Only one in five thousand turtles survives to adulthood, but those lousy odds seem to be getting worse.

Lohmann says, “A lot of turtles that beat the odds and would otherwise have lived long lives are now being caught on longlines.”

Ken Lohmann is a professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences. His study appears on the May 2007 issue of Animal Conservation. His team received funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.

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welcome:

from the editor.

overview:

in print:

endview:

art for adoption.

fine print:

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