Authorities in Trinidad and Tobago said Wednesday they regret that heavy machinery may have crushed leatherback eggs or hatchlings on a section of a prime nesting beach but stressed the work was crucial to redirect a meandering river that was threatening to erode bigger nesting areas for the endangered sea turtle.

Shamshad Mohammed, drainage director for Trinidad's Environment and Water Resources Ministry, insisted the nesting areas on Grand Riviere beach where heavy excavators shifted sand was waterlogged and 80 percent of the eggs were already destroyed.

"We truly regret the slaughter of these magnificent sea creatures," Mohammed said in a government statement issued Wednesday.

The director of the local Turtle Village Trust, Allan Bachan, said the area where machinery was used was determined to be the best place to move sand on the 1-kilometer beach "in order to save the remaining 97.9 percent of the eggs, which is estimated to be over a million eggs."