Please support the establishment of a marine reserve offshore from Cumberland Island National Seashore and along the Georgia coast to protect the critical habitat of endangered sea turtles and endangered right whales. The proposed marine reserve would encompass the right whale calving grounds and the offshore waters of Cumberland Island National Seashore.

Commercial shrimp trawls are the leading cause of sea turtle deaths in the United States. Establishing a trawl-free zone in Georgia—part of the largest loggerhead nesting site in the world—will provide a refuge for nesting sea turtles and a scientific baseline to determine the impacts of trawls on sea turtles and other marine life.

A marine reserve will also protect the pregnant females of North Atlantic right whales—the most endangered of all whales—who return to Georgia waters each winter to give birth to their calves.

Georgia waters shelter some of the world's most important and most endangered marine life. A marine reserve would ensure that the critical habitats of endangered right whales and endangered sea turtles are permanently protected.

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