Tom Ankersen, University of Florida Levin College of Law, has posted, in three parts, "Not for Long a Fishe: The Early History of Sea Turtle Conservation Law and Policy in Florida":
[Part I] reviews the broad history during the colonial era and then focuses on some of the first laws Florida’s territorial and early statehood years, when sea turtles were considered a fishery. By the end of the 19th century and continuing into the 20th century, the State’s sea turtle population had declined significantly due to over-harvest and a poor understanding of the species biology. In 1897, a federally commissioned Fisheries Report sounded the alarm. The Florida Legislation acted on one of the report’s conclusions, leading to the first law to protect nesting sea turtles in the state in 1907.
Shipping Green Turtle, Key West, 1898 (NYPL)
[Part II] tracks the efforts of the Florida Legislature to establish and regulate a managed fishery through county-specific legislation in the first half of the 20th century, and documents the early efforts to understand the late-maturing and highly migratory animal’s life history. With little understanding of sea turtle biology and behavior, the State attempted to maintain a viable sea turtle fishery during this period, with little success. In the 1950s, Dr. Archie Carr from the University of Florida laid the foundation for sea turtle science, along with a handful of other pioneering researchers. Carr founded the first advocacy group devoted to sea turtle conservation, which he and the founders called the “Brotherhood of the Green Turtle.” This advocacy group would eventually become the Sea Turtle Conservancy.
[Part III concludes the series.] Not without controversy, the 1970s brought an end to the sea turtle fishery in Florida, and along with it the classification of sea turtles as legally endangered. In this era, both international and federal law began to play a role in how sea turtles were legally treated by the State of Florida.
--Dan Ernst
