Corpusfishing.com

[seaweed]

I posted the following... Not sure it will do much good with closed minds for their favorite cause.

Joe, your argument is flawed.

You claim in your letter that “we are faced with increased resource conflicts” and as evidence that these conflicts exist, you go on to say that “Last year, these conflicts resulted in the death of two nesting Kemp’s ridley sea turtles on South Padre Island” and that one green sea turtle “was run over by a visitor who stopped to watch a biologist who was preparing to rescue it.”

To reduce these “conflicts” you've lowered the speed limit on Padre Island National Seashore (PINS) from 25 to 15 MPH.

Just to be clear about the subject of our discussion. The resource that is in conflict is PINS – the beach itself. The conflict is your perception of a problem between humans and the increasing turtle population on PINS.

Let's now look at the examples you give that caused you to lower the speed limit on PINS.

Two Kemp's Ridleys killed on South Padre Island. - What has that got to do with PINS? Last time I checked South Padre Island was not inside the park boundaries. The correct number of Ridleys killed on PINS is zero. In other words, there was no Kemp's Ridley “resource conflict” on PINS last year.

One green turtle run over on PINS – This turtle was run over as a visitor was stopping to watch a biologist. Joe, It happened during stopping - should I say that again – stopping. The speed limit had nothing to do with it. You might as well blame the biologist for distracting the driver.

So why did you change a speed limit that was working well? Could it be that you're catering to one group of users' desires to the detriment of the others?

John