VIDEO: Work on Curtis Island LNG Projects Leads to Extinction of Sea Turtles

 Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN) and The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) said that the Australia Pacific and Queensland LNG projects are destroying sea turtle and dugong habitat along Curtis Island in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and polluting the Gladstone harbor with toxic dredge sediments.

These environmental societies are warning that the massive fracking gas, coal and other industrial projects planned for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will push globally significant species of turtles closer to the brink of extinction.

“The Great Barrier Reef is home to some of the most amazing and vulnerable sea turtle species in the world who rely on a healthy reef for their future,” said Teri Shore, program director for Turtle Island Restoration Network, which has taken legal action over U.S. funding of massive Liquefied Natural Gas facilities (APLNG, GLNG and QCLNG) in sea turtle habitat. 

“The Australian flatback lives entirely in waters close to shore and sandy beaches, making them highly vulnerable to coastal port developments and shipping. Alternatively, leatherbacks live more in the open ocean where increased ship movements will take their toll through greater injury and death.

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Shore said marine turtles and their habitat are threatened by both direct and indirect impacts of industrialization, such as dredging, drilling, vessel strikes, fuel and oil spills and water pollution.

Ship strikes alone have killed 45 turtles in Gladstone Harbor over two years after the Curtis Island LNG project began, compared with an average of two a year in the past decade.

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LNG World News Staff, August 29, 2013; Image: seaturtles.org