*EPF114 06/21/2004
Congress Passes Bill to Assist Sea Turtle Conservation
(Legislation would authorize spending up to $5 million a year) (260)

Washington -- The Senate has passed a bill to authorize U.S. spending of up to $5 million a year to support foreign governments' programs to protect endangered sea turtles.

The Senate passed the bill without debate June 18 just days after the House of Representatives' passage June 14. For the bill to become law, it still requires the president's signature.

All seven species of marine turtles have been included in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). The turtles' populations have been devastated by fishing; destruction of nesting habitat; poaching of turtle eggs, meat and shells; and pollution.

"Marine turtles are now among the oldest living creatures on earth," Representative Wayne Gilchrest, chairman of the House fisheries conservation subcommittee, said in a June 14 press release. "They may have outlived the dinosaurs, but without our help their-long-term survival is in serious peril."

The bill passed by Congress was modeled after earlier legislation aimed at conserving elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, great apes and migratory birds.

Under the bill, the U.S. secretary of the interior would decide where to spend the money -- up to $5 million a year in the fiscal years 2005-2009 -- based on applications by foreign governments. Those governments might use such a grant to pay for monitoring of trade in turtle products, tracking the movement of sea turtles by satellite, protecting nesting beaches, or trying to stop poaching.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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