El Salvador Sea Turtle Deaths a Mystery

Prensa Latina
__________
San Salvador (El Salvador):
Salvadoran authorities and scientists are split over the January death of 147 sea turtles in El Salvador:
high toxicity or misuse of fishing nets.
They all agree, however, that such a death rate constitutes an ecological disaster because the affected species -carey, prieta and golfina turtles- are listed as endangered.Manuel Oliva, director of the Agriculture Ministry Fishing and Aquaculture Development Center, fears yet higher death tolls since just 20 percent of the bodies reach shore.
The most popular theory is the red tide, caused by increasing plankton or flowering of toxic algae. However Ricardo Navarro, from the Salvadoran NGO, Appropriate Technology Development, said the red tide would not cause massive animal deaths and blamed fishing boats.
El Salvador does not regulate fishing by shrimp and tuna boats, which sacrifice 13 pounds of other species for every 10 pounds of shrimp, as the nets do not meet international protection standards.
Jan 23, 2006