CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As efforts to preserve local wildlife continue, a group by the name of Save the Sea Turtles claim the National Park Service is looking to shut down vehicle traffic along the Padre Island National Seashore.
Members of the Save the Sea Turtles group showed up to Wednesday's Nueces County Commissioner's Court meeting to let everyone know what they say is really going on at the Padre Island National Seashore.
The group believes that world renowned scientist Dr. Donna Shaver is under attack, as well as her sea turtle program. Save the Sea Turtles organizer Jan Roberson has been leading the charge against Park Superintendent Eric Brunnemann. The group blames the superintendent for the situation and are worried that a current park study is something he wants to be able to use to shut the turtle program down.
"If the park service limits traffic, closes the beach or charges a hefty entrance fee, we stand lose much more," Roberson said. "Most importantly we stand to lose a world famous sea turtle scientist."
The group believes that there are plans to close Padre Island National Seashore to vehicle traffic and also charge an entrance fee for future sea turtle releases. They also said that Shaver is being stripped of all of her responsibilities.
The group added that Deepwater Horizon dollars are being withheld from Shaver's sea turtle program because someone in the National Park Service wants the beaches closed at the seashore. They said Shaver disagrees with that.
"These people don't believe in the incubation practice," Roberson said. "They don't believe cars should be on the beach and they're holding Donna accountable for that. So they've told Donna unless she gets cars off the beach, they're holding ransom Deepwater Horizon restoration funds."
Padre Island National Seashore Park Superintendent Eric Brunnemann declined to show up in person for the presentation, but he did answer a set of questions from Nueces County Commissioner Brent Chesney concerning some of the big issues. In his written response, Brunnemann stated that he has no intention of cutting funding to the sea turtle program, but he did say that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement dollars are expected to run out in 2026. That represents 30-percent of the sea turtle program's funding.
Brunnemann also said that the National Park Service is not pursuing changes to beach driving or associated fees at the park. There was some dispute in court about whether these comments were coming from Brunnemann as the park superintendent or if it was coming from the National Park Service itself.
Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales was able to provide insight on the situation.
"We can count on these being the National Park Service's response. That's how he's writing it. NPS response. Not Brunnemann's response," Canales said.
While a number of other people got to speak their mind about Shaver and her sea turtle program, Chesney said it looks like it will take action on the part of our local congressman and others to get absolute assurances from the National Park Service that Shaver and her sea turtle program are safe.
"The only way we're going to get a response is for Congressman Cloud or Senators Cruz and Cornyn to get involved in this," Chesney said.
Chesney said that he has contacted Congressmen Michael Cloud and Filemon Vela for help on this issue. He said he's going to continue trying to get the truth on this matter and continue to fight for Donna Shaver and the sea turtle program.
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