Mar. 19, 2008 Endangered sea turtles are victims of sloppy
logging practices in the west central African country Gabon,
according to a study led by William Laurance, staff scientist at
the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Sea turtle nesting
attempts are impeded by lost or abandoned logs that accumulate
along the country's coastal beaches. Logs are floated downriver
from forests to coastal lumberyards in the Gabonese Republic,
but some float out to sea and then wash ashore, where they form
large tangles. In an aerial survey, Laurance's team--co-
coordinated by J. Michael Fay of the Wildlife Conservation
Society--counted more than 11,000 logs along Gabon's beaches. In
the most important area for turtle nesting, Pongara Beach, more
than one-third of the beach was blocked by logs. In some places,
scientists found up to 247 logs per kilometer of beach. "It's
really sad to see what the logs are doing to the turtles,"
Laurance said. "Sea turtles move very slowly on land. When a log
blocks their path, sometime