Nature BRIEFINGS

FIGHT TO THE DEATH: Conservationists are in an uproar over the deathof 30 endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles at the Panama City (Fla.)Marine Institute. They were part of a shipment of 99 Kemp's ridleysraised in Galveston, Texas, and sent to Florida to test devicesdesigned to allow turtles to escape shrimpers' nets. The8-to-11-pound turtles are very aggressive and should be housedseparately because they bite each other to death when put in acommunal holding pen, said Ellin Beltz, of the Chicago HerpetologicalSociety. "If these were whooping cranes or koala `bears,' somebodywould be in jail by now," said Beltz. Forty surviving turtles werereleased in the Gulf of Mexico, 18 were …