September 8. 2014
Melissa Gaskill for
Scientific American
“Can rockets and endangered species co-exist?” The private Space
Rocket Company SpaceX wants to build a launch site right next to a place where
many endangered live. This is in Boca Chica, in Texas right next to the border
of Mexico. A large variety of Sea turtles live there including the Leatherback,
Loggerhead and Kemp’s Ridley Turtles. These all are sea turtle types that are
endangered from extinction. On the other Hand the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration gave SpaceX the approval to apply to licenses to build the
Launch pad. In that wildlife Park although there is a Sea Turtle Restoration
Project which could be endangered by the project of SpaceX. The Turtle Type
Ridley is nesting in the Wildlife Area and the number of them increased until
2009, when the Nesting decreased by 25%, and then in 2014 to 45% less than
2009. The Decline is said to be caused by the oil spill of deep water horizon. Yet
the number of loggerhead turtles had increased to 1100 nesting in 2014. On the
other hand in Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Rockets and Animals already
co-exist since 50 years. This was only made possible by Government watching
closely to minimize effects. The company SpaceX has already started to speak
with Biologists to make clear if turtles will be able to live there.
The article although says that it could be possible that it is
much more complicated to secure the animals than in Florida due to that SpaceX
is a private company and the Wildlife Parks are mostly owned by private holders.
They although say that they will want to secure the animals by themselves, as
they have talked to many agencies already. If the turtles won’t be protected,
it could be possible that up to 91 Turtles nesting could be killed or harmed,
as they breed up to 3 clutches in a season meaning a strong loss. Next, SpaceX
wants to remove 6 Hectares of Land and 1 Hectare of Water Land, but they are
cutting off another Hectare of wetland. It can so be expected that the turtles
could move, which would be a big loss for the region. A true negative side is
driven up by that they don’t want to say anything else than their statement,
meaning there could be more damage. Furthermore, the Government will only allow
the construction, if the environment is safe. Moreover the article says that
there is a bad Formal oversight meaning that the environment could be
endangered by the construction of the project.
I would really answer my question from the beginning as a strong No, in which endangered species can’t co-exist with rockets and Technology of this Kind. After my research, I found that the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle and the Hawksbill sea Turtle are Critically Endangered. This is a level on the IUCN Red List that is just over “Extinct in Wild” and then comes Extinct. This is really sad, as the Nature should not lose these animals as they are almost extinct. Also the other Turtle types are endangered and no one of them has any concern. So I think that this is really the wrong place for something like a launch pad for rockets, as they can always explode or malfunction, which then means that the habitat of these animals could be lost forever, and then they could be extinct. Also the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration stated that “may affect, is likely to adversely affect”. This comes back to the species, so the administration already sees that there could very likely be a negative effect on the endangered species. Truly this will really be a wrong decision to build a launch pad at a place where it is expected that there will be damage to the wildlife around it. This means that another animal type could go extinct like over 800 others, which will show the Humans that we can’t always solve the problems with technology, but we must stop some things that will affect the nature negatively.
Sea turtles have to be one of the most affected reptile around the globe due to their large migration patterns, and the fact that they return to the nesting sites where they were born to lay their own eggs. This is indeed a risk because when they hatched, the site may have looked very different than when they return and may often disappear completely. This is very sad for them because where will they go if they cannot return home to lay their 50-90 offspring.
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