Once again, the U.S. government has forgotten about sea turtles.

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Dear Friend,
Once again, the U.S. government has forgotten about sea turtles.
The presidential panel investigating the BP oil spill in the Gulf calls for drastic changes to reform offshore oil, but they didn't add sea turtle protections.
The Sea Turtle Restoration Project needs your help today to demand President Obama and Congress overhaul oil drilling regulations to be protective of sea turtles and prioritize their rescue in the next offshore drilling accident.

Report Blames Oil Industry and U.S. Government for BP Spill

Mistakes made by BP combined with flawed government oversight of the oil industry resulted in the worst oil spill in U.S. history and the most devastating environmental disaster for endangered sea turtles and other marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. New regulations are needed now to protect endangered sea turtles from drilling and prioritize their rescue in the next oil spill.

Congress Must Act to Protect Gulf Sea Turtles

Our elected officials must require new oil spill prevention and response plans that  prioritize rescue of endangered sea turtles at sea in an oil spill, require full cleanup of nesting beaches and allow volunteer assistance to rapidly increase wildlife recovery and cleanup efforts. Failing to take action now would be just as horrific as the oil spill itself.

THREE Ways You Can Help

1)    Click here to send a letter to President Obama and your representatives in Congress calling for an overhaul of offshore drilling environmental regulations.
2)    Send your own, personal letter to Congress to magnify your impact. See below for a template letter to build on.
3)    Make a donation to our Gulf of Mexico campaign work so we can hold BP accountable for all sea turtles harmed in the oil spill.

Please share this call to action on Facebook, other social networks, and with friends and family. Together, we can make a difference for sea turtles.

Sincerely,

Chris Pincetich,
Campaigner & Marine Biologist, Sea Turtle Restoration Project
Write a personal letter to President Obama and your representative in Congress using the template letter below.
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama and Members of Congress,

I urge you to enact new laws to ensure private energy companies and our federal agencies improve safety and environmental regulations to meet or exceed the recommendations in the recent report “Deep Water -The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling, Report to the President", National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, January 2011.

I support enacting laws to ensure that BP is held fully accountable for all costs to restore the damage done by the Macondo well blow-out and the ensuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. agencies should not cover the cleanup, monitoring, and reporting costs incurred in the spill, BP should.

Finally, we must learn from the mistakes made during the BP spill response and act now to ensure endangered sea turtles and sensitive marine life are not neglected during oil spill cleanup operations. Specifically, I support the creation of a Sea Turtle Response and Rescue Plan for oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and additional measures that would ensure the following conditions are met now and into the future:

Improved Oil Spill Response for Sea Turtles:
• Independent observers on all oil spill response vessels to record wildlife sightings; • Sea turtle rescuers on all cleanup vessel teams;
• Increase the number of qualified wildlife rescue teams on-call;
• Establish a volunteer protocol for wildlife rescue assistance;
• Maintaining of an effective level of search effort for sea turtles and wildlife;
• Endangered species prioritized for rescue and rehabilitation;
• Chemical dispersants and “controlled burns” banned where endangered species are present.

Improved Oil Spill Restoration:
• Funds set aside specifically for restoration of sea turtle nesting beaches and nearshore habitat;
• Full cleanup of nesting beaches, oil free to a depth of 30 inches.

Increased Sea Turtle Protection from Oil and Gas:
• Avoidance of sea turtle breeding, foraging and migration habitat for any new or renewed oil drilling platforms;
• Establishment of protected swimways through the Gulf of Mexico where new oil and gas development is prohibited and existing operations phased out.

The offshore oil and gas industry have yet to make any systematic changes to reduce their impacts to the Gulf’s sea turtles and marine life, and the time to take action to correct this is now.

Sincerely,
You