A Win For Environmental Groups: Judge Blocks Dredging Plan That Threatened Georgia’s Sea Turtles

The hopper dredges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had planned to use can suck sea turtles up from the ocean floor and chop the animals up in their blades.

Georgia Department of Natural Resources via AP

A federal judge is blocking a plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge shipping channels on the Georgia coast this summer, after state officials and environmentalists objected, saying the dredging was likely to kill nesting sea turtles.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Stan Baker issued a preliminary injunction, prohibiting the Corps from using the kinds of dredges that are deadliest to sea turtles near Brunswick until mid-December.

The Corps had intended to begin dredging in the area later this month.