The slow-swimming creatures that lumber through the cold waters south of Cape Cod come from an ancient lineage that can grow to 1,000 pounds and live for 70 years. Once thriving off the East Coast, loggerhead sea turtles have become a threatened species, as local fishermen kept finding the docile reptiles dead in their nets or slashed by the fast-moving steel dredges that scoop up scallops along the seabed.
Last month, the New England Fishery Management Council, which oversees the local fishing industry, approved new regulations that by 2013 would force hundreds of scallopers who fish in the rich waters from Nantucket to North Carolina to use different dredges.
“This was seen as really necessary to minimize the impact on turtles,’’ said Deirdre Boelke, the council’s fishery analyst who serves as its scallop plan coordinator. “It will allow the scallop fishery to continue to operate as it should, meaning that it’s a lucrative, successful fishery.’’
Some fishermen are unhappy, however, saying the specially designed dredges, each weighing about a ton, do little more than current trawling equipment to protect turtles, and they force fishermen to burn substantially more fuel and cost more to maintain.
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