Dead sea turtles washing up on US east coast

[treesparrow]

10th Dead Sea Turtle for Delaware; Recovered in Dewey

Shortly after reporting to duty on Sunday, Dewey Beach lifeguards spotted a large object floating in the surf about 100 yards from shore, surrounded by seagulls. It turned out to be a severely decomposed leatherback which the guards brought on the beach at Cullen Street.

The remains were so heavy, lifeguards asked the police for an SUV to help drag it across the sand toward the dunes where they planned to bury it after experts from the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute examine it.

Suzanne Thurman, MERR executive director, says this was the only leatherback reported so far this year. It was roughly five-feet long and 500 pounds in weight. She says leatherbacks can reach 1000 pounds. The leatherback is the largest of all living sea turtles and is critically endangered.

MERR has investigated nine other sea turtle incidents so far this year — all loggerheads.

Five of the 10 sea turtle incidents were reported during the past three days. That includes the turtle from Dewey and four others found along the Delaware Bay. Thurman says the strong northeast wind has been bringing the remains to shore, and she had pre-alerted the MERR team on Friday anticipating this might happen

http://www.wgmd.com/?p=60472

Dead sea turtles wash ashore on NJ beaches

BRIGANTINE, N.J. (AP) - Four dead sea turtles have washed ashore on beaches in New Jersey.

Sheila Dean, co-director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, says three loggerhead sea turtles and one leatherback sea turtle were found Sunday on beaches in Spring Lake, Island Beach State Park in Berkeley, North Wildwood and the Townsends Inlet area of Sea Isle City.

Dean says the turtle deaths did not appear unusual, adding "It just has to do with the tides and the winds and the seas."

Dean tells The Asbury Park Press that the loggerhead sea turtles weighted between 30 and 45 pounds each and that the leatherback, found in Townsends Inlet, weighed about 245 pounds.

http://www.njherald.com/story/18810396/dead-sea-turtles-wash-ashore-on-nj-beaches

 

[treesparrow]

Large numbers of sea turtles now turning up dead elsewhere on the planet and far away from the US incidents (Australia)

Mystery turtle deaths stump scientists

THE mysterious death of 22 green turtles, a protected species, is puzzling experts in North Queensland.

The experts have not ruled out poisoning and even drowning as a cause.

The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection is investigating the deaths of the turtles found at Wunjunga Beach, about 100 kilometres south of Townsville.

The department's director of threatened species, Wolf Sievers, said the vulnerable animals have been washing up on the beach for over a week.

"It is very unusual for this many turtles to have stranded on one beach and we will be making every effort to establish what may have happened," Mr Sievers said.

Senior turtle expert Dr Ian Bell said that initial investigations found no injuries, no obvious signs of malnutrition or illness.

"It's a bit like turtle CSI, it's all about ruling out possible alternatives," Dr Bell said.

"We're ruling out starvation. It doesn't look like it's any infectious type of disease, and it leaves us with two possibilities.

"One is potential poisoning, and we're also looking at the possibility of a drowning.

"At this stage we really don't know."

The department hopes they will be able to establish the causes of death after performing further necropsies.

The entire Great Barrier Reef is an important feeding area for green turtles, which are classified as a vulnerable species nationally under legislation.

All of the green turtles, except one, have been large adult female green turtles. Adults have a shell length of about 1m and average about 130 kg, although some nesting females can weigh more than 180 kg.

A loss of just one breeding size individual can have an impact on the species.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/mystery-turtle-deaths-stump-scientists/story-e6frf7jx-1226407912120

 

[treesparrow]

There has now been a huge increase in the number of dead sea turtles turning up on the Australian coast, from 22 reported in the post above to 73 recorded below.

Townsville turtle death toll up to 73

THE death toll of vulnerable green sea turtles south of Townsville has shown no signs of slowing down, with more sick animals washing up on beaches today.

Queensland authorities have carried out two helicopter surveys after more than 20 of the vulnerable species, mostly adult females, were discovered washed up on beaches around Upstart Bay last week.

Two more were found on Friday on Wunjunga Beach, about 100 kilometres south of Townsville, and their cause of death continue to baffle scientists.

A total of 73 dead turtles have now been discovered.

Marty McLaughlin, operations manager at Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services, says the turtles were nourished with no obvious signs of illness.

"This is classified as an unusual event," Mr McLaughlin told AAP.

"We now have better data about the number of turtles, but they are continuing to wash up.


"We still can't rule out poisoning as toxicology reports have yet to be finalised."

The department says the results from toxicology will be known over the next two weeks.

The deaths have come just weeks after a damning UNESCO report criticising Australia's management of the Great Barrier Reef, an important feeding area for green sea turtles.

The species is considered vulnerable under national legislation and a loss of just one breeding sized individual can have an impact on the population.

Most of the green turtles found dead have been adult females, with some adult males and adolescents as well.
Adults have a shell length of about one metre and average about 130 kg, although some nesting females can weigh more than 180 kg.

_http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/townsville-turtle-death-toll-up-to-73/story-e6frfku0-1226412412043

 

[treesparrow]

Again, from elsewhere on the planet another report, this time of thousands of dead turtles recently reported from the Bay of Bengal on Indian beaches.

Dead Turtles At Paradip Sea Beach ( Bay Of Bengal )

Shocking news from Paradip at
the Coastal belt of Odisha ( Bay of Bengal ):
Since last week thousands of Turtles
were found dead on the shoreline.

Nature Drive NDTI is planning to bury the dead tortoises on Wednesday in the sand at the beaches. We will send two of these tortoises to the laboratory for further investigation to find the cause of their death. On first sight it seems to be caused by unhealthy water condition like increased acid levels rather than fishing activities. Whatever the reason for this massive death might be, it is very sad news for animal lovers.

_http://www.no-sea-and-earth-pollution.org/BLOG-NO-EARTH-POLLUTION_files/archive-2012.html
Video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJn4DGQEQOc

 

[Laura]

I tell ya, stuff is going on under our oceans and in our skies that should scare us to death!

 

[loreta]

This is very scary. Turtles are so magnificent, so ancient, so strong and their deaths by thousand around the world is something terrible. Like in a dream, we should ask: what are you telling us, dear turtles, by your death? And why now? What is mother nature telling us with those deaths? :(

 

[treesparrow]

Still more turtles washing up. This time in New England, 45 of them in a 24 hour period.

Scituate —

The following was provided to the Mariner from the New England Aquarium.

Hypothermic sea turtles continue to wash up in record numbers on Cape Cod but in an unusual twist, two large loggerhead sea turtles have stranded on South Shore beaches since Monday.

On Tuesday, Hull animal control officer Casey Fredette retrieved a live loggerhead from Nantasket Beach while on Monday another 40-pounder was rescued in the Humarock section of Scituate.

Cold-stunned sea turtles strand annually on Cape Cod but almost always on the southern and eastern beaches of Cape Cod Bay from Sandwich to Truro. Typically, the northwest and northeast winds of late autumn create enough wave activity to drive the floating, nearly immobile marine reptiles ashore on those windward towns. Strandings on the South Shore are very rare events, and normally are confined to the discovery of long dead, smaller turtles early in the winter.

Hardy beach walkers on Cape Cod are familiar with the drill of what to do when they encounter stranded sea turtles as they call the Mass Audubon Sanctuary at Wellfleet Bay, which is the sea turtle first responder organization for the Cape. However, for South Shore residents, this is an unusual event.

Earlier in the week, well-meaning but misdirected beach walkers tried to return a hypothermic sea turtle to the frigid waters that it was trying to escape. Instead, those finding a sea turtle whether alive or appearing dead, should call the Aquarium’s Marine Animal Hotline at 617-973-5427 or contact their local animal control officer. Washed –up sea turtles with body temperatures in the 40s and with heartbeats as low as one per minute may appear dead but can still be re-warmed and revived at the Aquarium’s off-site animal care center in the Quincy Shipyard.

Aquarium officials are puzzled by the unusual stranding locations but are asking for the public’s help in watching for more turtles on South Shore beaches. These two loggerheads were easy to see given their fairly large size and beautiful, chestnut brown shells,. However, most of the turtles that wash up are much smaller at 2 to 12 pounds and black in color, which blends in with other flotsam at the high tide line on a beach. These turtles are Kemp’s Ridleys, which are the most endangered sea turtle in the world.

This most strange sea turtle stranding season for many reasons marches on. This past Saturday, 13 hypothermic sea turtles were brought to Quincy from Cape Cod. That is an unusually large number for a single day this late in December. Double digit admission dates are not common and normally happen in November. Among the 13 were nine loggerhead sea turtles. In a typical year, the Aquarium might treat 4-6 large loggerheads in its two-month long season. The two additional South Shore loggerheads over the past 24 hours brings the total number of stranded loggerheads total to 45! The 40 to 100 pound loggerheads create a strain on available tank space at the Aquarium’s new sea turtle hospital that has a capacity of about 100 sea turtles.
A total of 74 re-warmed and stabilized sea turtles have been transported to other marine animal rescue facilities up and down the East Coast, including 35 sea turtles that were flown from Cape Cod to Florida aboard a Coast Guard plane earlier this month. To help with the overwhelming clinical demand of caring for so many sea turtles, biologists from the Virginia Aquarium, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Riverhead Foundation on Long Island and IFAW on Cape Cod have been brought in to assist.

The Aquarium welcomes financial donations to help offset the cost of such an unexpected record event. Over the past 20 years, the Aquarium in partnership with Mass Audubon has rescued, rehabbed and released over 1,000 endangered sea turtles.

_http://www.wickedlocal.com/scituate/news/x1783185620/Turtle-washes-up-on-Humarock-Beach#axzz2FpFk2JzI

 

[treesparrow]

This phenomena has has now spread to another US state (NC). In addition the totals on the shores of New England have increased from 45 in December last month to now hundreds of dead or stunned individuals.

Volunteers Search NC Coast to Rescue Sea Turtles

By MARTHA WAGGONER Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. January 15, 2013 (AP)

Slogging through muck and venturing out on kayaks, volunteers along North Carolina's seashore are rescuing sea turtles that become stunned when the water turns cold and get stuck in coastal sounds, unable to save themselves.

The sea turtles — typically green, Kemp's Ridley and the occasional loggerhead — tend to be juveniles who get so busy gorging themselves on the near-shore goodies that they don't get around to moving out to the warmer Gulf stream before a cold spell hits.

"This is really one of the absolute hot spots on the planet for cold stunning in almost any year," said Liz Browning Fox of Buxton on Hatteras Island, who rescues cold-stunned turtles that beach themselves or get stuck along the edge of the Pamlico Sound. "We have a huge sound system in North Carolina, and it's like a feasting table for several species ... Juvenile sea turtles feast on this delightful table. Like teenagers, they stay at the table as long as you'll let them."

Because they're cold-blooded, turtles' body temperatures match their environment. When the water temperature drops below 50 degrees, they become too lethargic to move into warmer water. Since the first cold-stunned turtle of the winter was found, Dec. 23, 2012, along Cape Lookout, rescuers have taken in 72 live turtles and found six others dead, said Matthew Godfrey, the state sea turtle biologist in Beaufort. The vast majority of the rescued turtles survived, he said.

Some years, as many as 150 cold-stunned turtles have been found in North Carolina, he said.

Most of the turtles this year are being found along Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, said Karen Clark, program coordinator at the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education and an adviser to the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles on the Outer Banks.

On Hatteras Island, one volunteer goes out each morning and checks the water temperature. When it's below 50 degrees, a core group of about 10 volunteers is alerted to search for cold-stunned turtles.

Fox dons knee boots while others wear hip waders that allow them to go into deeper water. Fox's brother, Lou Browning, brings turtles in on his kayak, sometimes cradling them on his lap. The volunteers carry these heavy turtles long distances to get them to a car. A 25-pound turtle weighs a lot after a half-mile walk through muck, Fox said.

"When it comes to turtles, we bend over backward to do whatever we can whenever we can," Lou Browning said.

Turtles "are just simply amazing creatures," he said. "They've been around so many millions of years. They're the toughest animals on earth. They survive things that no other creature can."

Brittany Waterfield, 16, of Avon, who participated in a NEST training program rescued a loggerhead with the help of her mother, Tammy, on a cold, dreary Sunday in January. "I felt like I had saved another life," Brittany said. "I would do anything for an animal. "

People who find turtles should call NEST, which has a hotline that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And never assume a sea turtle is dead, Fox says. Passers-by ignored one upside-down turtle, assuming it was dead, but rescuers saved it.

Hundreds of cold-stunned turtles have been found off the New England coast — so many that rehabilitation facilities elsewhere are helping them recover.


Usually, when sea turtles are stunned and brought in for treatment, they haven't eaten for days or weeks. One loggerhead brought to the South Carolina Aquarium this week from New England had not eaten in a month.

Some turtles rescued in North Carolina also are getting help there.

"One thing that happens when sea turtles are cold stunned, their bodies just shut down. You can't feed them immediately, you have to wait for them to get going again," said Kelly Thorvalson, the turtle rescue program manager for the aquarium where three loggerheads stunned earlier this month off North Carolina are being treated.

They are usually treated with shots of antibiotics and vitamins until they can eat small amounts of food. The antibiotics also help prevent other ailments such as pneumonia from setting in.


In the case of the North Carolina loggerheads brought to South Carolina, the recovery will take months. Depending on how quickly they recover, the turtles will likely be released off South Carolina in late spring.

Fox is keeping a wary eye on the weather forecast, fearful that another drop in temperatures will bring more cold-stunned turtles ashore. The forecast calls for highs in the 30s in about a week.

"We are very concerned," she said. "We hope all the turtles got the idea from the first temperature drop and headed out to Gulf stream. But there are some turtles swimming in the sound. We will all be looking."

_http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/volunteers-search-nc-coast-rescue-sea-turtles-18222902

 

[treesparrow]

Yet another country hit by a mass sea turtle die off (along with other sea creatures), this time Costa Rica.

Costa Rica Investigates Deaths of 280 Sea Turtles

SAN JOSE – A formal investigation was launched Tuesday to determine the cause of death of about 280 sea turtles in the Gulf of Dulce, on the southern Pacific coast, a situation that was denounced by environmentalists, the Costa Rican Environment Ministry said.

“The initial aim is to collect information and verify if it was ... caused by human action,” the ministry said.

The alert over the finding of the dead turtles was given by the environmental organization Widecast, which had received a report from residents of the Osa peninsula.

The reports of the environmentalists say that along with the turtles, other sea creatures had turned up dead along the coast, including sailfish and marlin.

Although authorities have not yet been able to determine the turles’ cause of death, some hypotheses point to fishing in the area using lines that may be several kilometers (miles) long.

Environmental officials in Panama, meanwhile, said Tuesday that they had begun an investigation to learn why sea life has been dying in the region around the Gulf of Chiriqui, Coiba and Puertos Armuelles, on the country’s Pacific coast.

_http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=664096&CategoryId=23558

 

[treesparrow]

Dead turtles found on Rotto

Daniel Mercer, The West Australian Updated February 18, 2013, 3:10 am

Environmental authorities have been baffled by a sharp rise in the number of dead turtles washing up on Rottnest Island and believe the increase may be linked to spiralling ocean temperatures off WA.

The Department of Environment and Conservation confirmed an increase in the number of turtles usually associated with tropical waters being found dead at the popular holiday spot.

Although the Rottnest Island Authority suggested about five carcasses - believed to have been green turtles - had been noted in the past 12 months, residents on the island have put the figure upwards of 20.

A DEC spokeswoman said that the agency was unsure what had been causing the deaths but there would not be an investigation because it was considered a natural phenomenon.

However, the spokeswoman said several factors could have played a part including warmer water temperatures and changing ocean currents.

She said that it was known for green turtles to occasionally migrate as far south as Perth but Rottnest was outside their usual habitat, suggesting they may have struggled to find food.

The possible role of warmer ocean temperatures could be the latest symptom of broader changes that have played havoc with some fisheries and may be linked to an increase in shark attacks.

In December, the Department of Fisheries said it was investigating whether a marine heatwave had led to an increase in great white shark activity by pushing cooler water, which they preferred, towards the coast.

"There has been an increase in dead turtles being found on the shore at Rottnest Island in the past five months," the DEC spokes-woman said.

"While the reason for the increase is unclear, there could be a number of factors, including predation, water temperature and ocean currents."

One frequent user of Rottnest's beaches, who asked not to be named, said the number of dead turtles was an increasing topic of discussion among island residents.
She said that locals had known the phenomenon to happen before but never to the same extent.

_http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/16163137/dead-turtles-found-on-rotto/

 

[treesparrow]

Yet another recent report, this time from another region of India. There seems to be no end to this.

Endangered Olive Ridley turtles carcasses found on AP coast

Visakhapatnam, Feb.10 (ANI): Nearly 100 carcasses of the endangered Olive Ridley turtles were washed ashore under mysterious circumstances, baffling scientists and locals, at the coast of Appikonda beach in Andhra Pradesh state.

According to reports, this is one of the highest death tolls of Olive Ridleys in Vizag district after a span of four years.

The Olive Ridley turtles, which are listed as an endangered species, land up in thousands on Indian shores between the months of November and March.

The head of the environmental science department, E.U.Bhaskar Reddy, said the cause of the deaths of the turtles is yet to be ascertained.

"Some of the species in the population might be growing older, some may have become sick and some may after death, natural death the worse thing will be throwing them out and these carcasses will be coming to the shore and we have to verify whether these turtles they are coming to the shore in a complete dead state or sick state, then only we can comment," said Reddy.

In February 2008, nearly 700 Olive Ridleys were declared dead on the beaches of Appikonda, Tantadi, Mutyallammapalem and Tikkavanipalem.

Not only turtles, but even territorial fish are becoming victims of the unchecked pollution.

A biopsy was conducted in 2008 on the dead turtles and the reports suggested the presence of nitrates in abnormally high quantity in the guts, indicating that not only the water but even the feed had turned toxic in the area which was the home to these turtles.

After the incident, environmentalists had raised a hue and cry over the issue, and the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board also promised to take some measures to prevent a repeat of these deaths.

Olive Ridleys migrate from the coast of Mexico to the Andhra Pradesh coast for breeding and nesting each year between the months of November and March.

Many of them die along the Visakhapatnam coast after getting trapped in the double-filament gill nets that are used by trawlers and now pollution is another major problem. (ANI)

_http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2013/02/10/207-Endangered-Olive-Ridley-turtles-carcasses-found-on-AP-coast.html