BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hitting pause on one of its activities in Glynn County, as environmental advocates say it will help save a beloved species.
Dredging is now stopped in the Brunswick Harbor during sea turtle nesting season until an environmental review can be done. Environmental advocates have been fighting for this with lawsuits for years. They say dredging is too risky for sea turtles during nesting season.
The Corps is pausing their hopper dredging in the Brunswick Harbor during the summer until they can do a thorough review of its impacts to wildlife and the environment. They will only dredge from mid-December through March, according to a memo from the Corps.
Catherine Ridley is an environmental advocate with One Hundred Miles, which has been involved in the lawsuits, and with the St. Simons Island Sea Turtle Project. Ridley explains that hopper dredges act like vacuums and loggerhead sea turtles, particularly nesting females, can get sucked up and killed.
Ridley says data shows dredging done during the winter, balances both human safety and the safety of nesting sea turtles.
"It's the height of nesting season," Ridley said. "And so what it means is we can rest easy knowing that those turtles are able to come and lay their eggs, to stay in our channels and they don't face the threat of being killed by a dredge."
A spokesperson with the Corps says they don't have a date yet for when the environmental report will start nor how long it will take.