Light Pollution Deters Nesting Sea Turtles

A loggerhead sea turtle swimming in the waters off the coast of Israel.

A loggerhead sea turtle nesting on the beach of Israel.

Light pollution along the Mediterranean is changing the nesting habits of sea turtles in Israel, according to new research.

Orbital pictures of the region, coupled with sea turtle nesting data from Israel's National Parks Authority, revealed that the species of turtles in that area cluster their nests in darker spots.

"The two species of sea turtle in our study are nocturnal nesters. It is thought that the light pollution along the coast at night coulddisrupt visual cues. Visual cues are important for sea turtles for other functions, such as finding the sea after nesting or hatching," lead researcher Tessa Mazor, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Queensland, told LiveScience.

"The impact of night lights on beaches and the disruptive impact it has on the process of hatchlings finding the sea is well documented and researched. In comparison, the disruption caused to nesting sea turtles is not well known," Mazor wrote in an email.

Hatchlings confused by light

The study surveyed two species of sea turtles, the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). [In Images: Tagging & Tracking Sea Turtles]

In general, Mazor said, female sea turtles nest on beaches and they return to the same nesting beaches where they were born, often within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of their hatching site.

In the Mediterranean, the nesting season takes place between May and September, with a single female able to lay up to eight nests. A female turtle generally moves to the beach at night, digs and deposits a clutch of anywhere between 40 and 200 eggs into the sand, then covers it and leaves it behind.

The hatchlings, when they emerge two months later during the night in order to avoid predators, are particularly vulnerable to night lights, Mazor noted.

"During this process of finding the sea, the hatchlings are vulnerable to disorientation by artificial lighting and so some of them head the wrong direction [for example] towards roads. Others can be predated by foxes, dogs, birds," she said.

Orbital pictures reveal dark nesting sites

Mazor's group was interested in how nesting sites are affected by night lights. Imagery of Israel came from a 2007 satellite image from Argentina's SAC-C satellite as well as a 2003 image taken by an astronaut on Expedition 6 aboard the International Space Station.

After taking into account how the beaches are geologically structured, and the impacts of human activity, the study still found a significant relationship between night light intensity and nesting. Turtles preferred nesting in the darker regions.

"Our findings are one of the first to show that night lights estimated with satellite-based imagery can be used to explain sea turtle nesting activity over a large-scale area," Mazor said.

The results could be applied to other Mediterranean locations due to the high intensity of coastal activities, she added, but also have applicability worldwide.

"Most sea turtle species are nocturnal nesters and thus affected by artificial night-light activity, so these results would apply in areas where nesting beaches are close by to cities and human activities," she said.

Results could guide conservation authorities

The researchers suggested the results of the study could aid in conservation efforts by guiding authorities to create reserves in darker areas along the coastline, perhaps by taking steps like restricting lighting after certain hours.

Most sea turtles are endangered worldwide due to human fishing activities (they often get accidentally caught in nets and drown before they can be released) as well as growth in coastal populations and tourist activities along coastlines.

"We must understand threats to species at broader scales and don't always have the time and manpower to carry out such large on-the-ground experiments," Mazor said.

"In areas where field locations are inaccessible or areas are too vast, satellite imagery and remote sensing can aid us to identify and explore threats."

Mazor's group's work was published in the March 2013 issue of the journal Biological Conservation, with participating researchers from Australia, Italy and Israel. Her next step will be to examine the effect of climate change on nesting beaches in Israel and the Mediterranean.

"An interesting biological trait of sea turtles is that the temperature of the sand determines the sex of the species. Within the sea turtle nesting temperature range (25-33 degrees Celsius,[77-91 degrees Fahrenheit]) females are produced at higher temperatures and males at lower temperatures," she said, so changes wrought by climate change could alter the distribution of the sexes within the species.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

China and Hong Kong Hold Edward Snowden's Fate

By Connor Simpson | The Atlantic Wire – 21 hrs ago

China and Hong Kong Hold Edward Snowden's Fate

The Guardian has revealed the identity of the man who leaked information about the NSA's surveillance programs, PRISMandBoundless Informant. Meet Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old defense contractor employee who's worked for the NSA for four years.

RELATED: Why We Still Don't Know How Much Access PRISM Has

Snowden is currently employed by defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, where he makes around $200,000, and has worked at the NSA office in Hawaii for four years. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said in a taped interview with Greenwald. He used to work for the CIA as a technical assistant. He's an American citizen with a girlfriend and a house in Hawaii. But on May 20, he told his boss he needed to take a few weeks off work. He got on a plane and flew to Hong Kong, where he's been holed up in a hotel room ever since. He explained his motivations for leaking the NSA information in a note:

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

Snowden realizes he's risking his life -- his house, his freedom, his girlfriend -- by leaking this information. "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," he said.

RELATED: Meet Boundless Informant, the NSA's Data Overview Tool

Earlier in the day, Greenwald discretely previewed his big reveal during his interview on ABC's This Week by detailing his leaker's motivations. "They risked their careers and their lives and their liberty because what they were seeing being done in secret inside the United States government is so alarming and so pernicious that they simply want one thing," Greenwald said on This Week. "That is, for the American people at least to learn about what this massive spying apparatus is, and what the capabilities are, so that we can have an open, honest debate about whether that’s the kind of country that we want to live in."

RELATED: Obama's NSA Defense: Congress Can Raise Objections It Can't Actually Raise

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told NBC's Andrea Mitchell the agency has ordered a criminal investigation into Snowden's leaks. "For me, it is literally – not figuratively – literally gut-wrenching to see this happen because of the huge, grave damage it does to our intelligence capabilities," Clapper said. The criminal investigation doesn't seem to bother Snowden. He thinks the U.S. are going to come after him by any means necessary, up to and including paying off gangs to go after him. "Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads. Any of their agents or assets," he told Greenwald.

Where in the World Is Edward Snowden?

ByConnor Simpson | The Atlantic Wire – 21 hrs ago

Where in the world is Edward Snowden?

Edward Snowden is the most sought-after leaker of national security secrets in the world right now — maybe ever — except that, well, it appears that nobody has any idea where on earth he actually is. The 29-year-old former Booz Allen defense contractor working with the National Security Agency, reportedly in Hong Kong andtrying to get out, has gone AWOL, and the chase is on, for sleuths both real and amateur.

RELATED: How to Apply for Edward Snowden's Old Job

Snowden was in a hotel in Hong Kong when The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald last spoke with him, on June 6, even though his tell-all video interview went online Sunday. He was holed up in his room ordering room service, rarely leaving in case secret agents were waiting for him on the other side. The hotel was allegedly "just up the road" from the U.S. consulate on Hong Kong's main island — which just so happens to have a CIA station.

RELATED: Washington Turns on the NSA Blinders to Target Weird 'IT Guy' Leaker Instead

Now, Snowden is likely on the move in Hong Kong. The Washington Post reports someone named Edward Snowden was checked out of the Mira Hotel on Monday morning. CNN has also been toldsomeone named Snowden checked out Monday morning. The Mira Hotel is not "just up the road" from the consulate, though; it's across the harbour from the main island. Here's a map:

RELATED: Hong Kong May Have Been Ed Snowden's Biggest Mistake

Hong Kong is unlikely refuge for US secrets leaker

Glenn Greenwald, a reporter of The Guardian newspaper, speaks during an interview in Hong Kong Monday, June 10, 2013. Greenwald reported a 29-year-old contractor who claims to have worked at the National Security Agency and the CIA allowed himself to be revealed Sunday as the source of disclosures about the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs, risking prosecution by the U.S. government. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

This photo provided by The Guardian Newspaper in London shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, on Sunday, June 9, 2013, in Hong Kong. The Guardian identified Snowden as a source for its reports on intelligence programs after he asked the newspaper to do so on Sunday. (AP Photo/The Guardian)

HONG KONG (AP) — By holing up in Hong Kong, the American defense contractor who says he leaked information on classified U.S. surveillance programs has found an unlikely refuge from extradition.

It might be temporary, however. Hong Kong's protection ofEdward Snowden is not a given.

As a former British colony, the territory has a well-established, Western-style legal system. It is home to a boisterous media and outspoken public that ardently defend their rights to expression. And though a semi-autonomous part of China, it ultimately answers to Beijing, which is often at odds with Washington.

That combination of sturdy legal institutions and strong political backing made Hong Kong an attractive place to take shelter, said Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, whose reports last week that exposed widespread U.S. government programs to collect telephone and Internet records were based on information from Snowden.

"There were no good options for him, so it just became a question of weight of all the various factors," Greenwald said in Hong Kong on Monday. "There were probably other places that were more democratic but that would be more likely to hand him over to the United States because they wouldn't want to resist the pressure that the United States would undoubtedly apply to get him."

However, the U.S. is one of the largest investors in Hong Kong, a major business center for East Asia. The U.S. and Hong Kong also have an extradition treaty and routinely cooperate on requests to transfer criminals; in one high-profile case, Hong Kong extradited three al-Qaeda suspects to the U.S. in 2003.

While Beijing at times stands up to Washington, it may not want to for Snowden. Beijing has often criticized foreign governments for harboring critics of its Communist government. China also is seeking U.S. cooperation on retrieving corrupt Chinese officials who have fled to America, often with sizeable assets. Cyberhacking and cyberespionage have emerged as the newest friction in relations that Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping pledged over the weekend to improve.

"I can't imagine that after all this effort, they're going to let this one thing make a mess of it," said David Zweig, an expert on Chinese politics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Still, the extradition treaty gives Hong Kong ways to say "no." The U.S. and Hong Kong concluded the treaty with Beijing's blessing on the eve of the territory's hand back from Britain to China in 1997. Provisions allow one side to refuse a request if it's deemed to be politically motivated or if the suspect is unlikely to receive a fair trial.

Beijing may also have a veto. The treaty allows Beijing to refuse to extradite a Chinese national for reasons of national security. A study by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1997 suggests Beijing may have wider discretion to prohibit any extradition, not just of Chinese nationals, on national security grounds.

Snowden's greatest ally, however, may be the Hong Kong court system. Extraditions, if contested, can drag on for years. Hong Kong's high court in a ruling on a case concerning three African asylum-seekers ordered authorities to devise a unified standard for assessing asylum applications. The ruling effectively puts applications on hold until the new system is in place.

Snowden checked out of Hong Kong's Mira Hotel on Monday. Greenwald, who declined to say where Snowden is currently, said he did not think the contractor had applied for asylum anywhere but that his strategy was simple.

"I think that his goal is to avoid ending up in the clutches of the U.S. government for as long as he can, knowing full well though that it's very likely that won't succeed and he will end up exactly where he doesn't want to be," Greenwald said.