Not everything on the beach is free for the taking.
When the Bald Head Island Conservancy this past weekend learned a loggerhead skull and shell had gone missing from the West Beach strand, it issued a bulletin to the public seeking their return.
Loggerhead sea turtles, the conservancy emphasized, fall under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), making even dead specimens untouchable and violators subject to heavy federal fines.
Within minutes, a very embarrassed Bald Head Islander had contacted the conservancy to say he was in possession of the skull and shell.
The resident had taken them without knowledge of the illegality, only “thinking it would look lovely on his wall,” explained Suzanne Dorsey, the conservancy’s executive director.
She added the resident was “mortified” to know he’d broken the law, but to the conservancy it was an honest, no-harm-done situation that created an educational moment.
The nonprofit conservancy on Bald Head, founded in 1983 for the preservation of barrier islands and their plant and animal life, has special permits to handle loggerhead skeletons and can keep them for use as educational aids–authority the general public does not have.
The conservancy’s bulletin seeking the dead loggerhead’s return had noted there would be no penalty to whomever turned the skull over to it or to local police.
But the penalties can be huge.
The ESA prohibits harassment, harm, killing or trading any of its listed species, alive or dead, unless specifically permitted.
“It also applies to parts of or any products made from these species,” Dorsey noted.
Criminal violations can fetch fines of up to $50,000 or a year of imprisonment, or both, and civil penalties can include fines of up to $25,000.
Loggerheads in this part of the world are listed as a “threatened” species, meaning they’re likely to become an endangered species “in the foreseeable future,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Sea turtle nesting season will officially begin in May and run into November.
The conservancy by permit responds to all calls of sea-turtle strandings or related incidents on Bald Head Island and reports information to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
Reports to the conservancy should be made through (910) 457-0089.
Contact Ben Brown at ben.b@hometownwilmington.com or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter: @benbrownmedia
