Showing posts with label hatchlings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hatchlings. Show all posts

7/30/10

Weekly Oil Spill Update: Capture and Release

I just want to share with you a couple of interesting news pieces that I have come across this week.

The video below, released by NOAA and posted on the USCG website, shows the capture and assessment of sea turtles in the gulf.



This article describes Kemp's ridley sea turtle hatchlings being released into the gulf from Padre Island National Seashore. Since Texas remains oil-free, this procedure will continue as in previous years.


Kemp's ridley hatchlings being released. (Photo credit: AP via Yahoo News)

~Kerry
Posted by Kerry at 2:26 PM 0 comments
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7/7/10

Weekly Oil Spill Update: Burn Zones & Turtle Nests

As Connie is away for a bit Kerry and Adam have been charged with keeping the weekly updates going. So here we go.

Just how big is this oil spill? We received a great visual from one of our colleagues the other day. Click on this link, input your location, and see what happens.

Connie spoke about the turtle nests and fears of turtles in the burn zones. We have found some interesting articles detailing both topics. The concerns for sea turtles being affected during the controlled burns have become very public. BP is now placing observers, highly trained sea turtle rescuers, on the oil burn boats. The hope is that the observers will be able to sight and rescue sea turtles in the burn area before any burning or skimming occurs.

The below picture showing the controlled burns in the Gulf was taken by Chief Petty Officer John Kepsimelis, U.S. Coast Guard. See the photo in this USA TODAY slide show.

Connie mentioned the plans to relocate 70,000 sea turtle eggs form the coasts of Alabama and Florida's panhandle in the blog here. Relocating nests, which will mostly be loggerhead sea turtle nests is an extremely delicate process. Experts will excavate a nest by slowly and carefully digging, mostly by hand. In an effort to keep the environment of the egg as similar as possible to the natural nest, specially designed Styrofoam containers will be used to place the eggs in. Sand and the right amount of moisture will be placed around the eggs, and the temperature will be carefully monitored and controlled.

The plan is to then transport the eggs to a warehouse at Kennedy's Space Center in Florida. The eggs will be incubated there until the turtles hatch, and then the hatchlings will be released on the east coast of Florida. The risks of this process is high, but the risk of leaving the hatchlings to enter the Gulf and potentially become covered in and ingest oil is likely higher.

There is also debate that a possibly safer method would be to leave the nests as is and screen them to allow the eggs to hatch naturally. Then the hatchlings would be contained, collected and then transported to a safe release location. Hatchlings are not quite as delicate as the eggs, and this could also help reduce the risk of affecting sex ratios. It is hard to say what the best choice would be in this impossible situation.

Below are some pictures we found from the Coast Guard. It shows biologists from the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge in Alabama relocating a nest. This nest was relocated because it was too close to the tide line. It is protocol to move the nest higher up on the beach. The new nest has to mimic the original nest as closely as possible. You can see how delicate the process is, and keep in mind this is only a short move compared to the relocation procedure that will begin in the next few weeks.



We will do our best to keep you informed while Connie is away!

~Adam and Kerry
Posted by Adam at 4:56 PM 0 comments
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7/3/10

Weekly Oil Spill Update - Relocating turtles and nests

Hi all,

Sorry for missing my self inflicted oil spill blog deadline - the past few days were crazy for me and I never got to it. Speaking of which lets get to the matter at hand, the weekly oil spill update.

This week 11 sea turtles were transported out of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, (IMMS) located in Mississippi, to free up space for oiled sea turtles. Nine of the turtles went to SeaWorld and two went to Disney. None of these animals were oiled however, each stranded with injuries related to interactions with humans. I believe several were hooked accidentally by local fishermen. IMMS will now have more space available to accept oiled sea turtles if it becomes necessary.

In the photo below, Jane Davis, curator for Disney's animal programs, checks over a Kemp's ridley sea turtle fresh off the transport plane. Disney is a long time partner of ours in the effort to save endangered sea turtles; two of their veterinarians are NEAq alum!

Photo credit: AP/John Raoux

In the photos below SeaWorld veterinarian, Dr. Scott Gearhart, examines a Kemp's ridley sea turtle upon arrival to their facility.

Photo credits: AP/John Raoux

In the photo below on the left a SeaWorld staff member, Lateesha Hektner, lowers a sea turtle into its new rehabilitation pool. I borrowed the photo on the right from the SeaWorld blog to show their excellent triage facility. Sea World has a talented staff in veterinary medicine and in their ability to design and quickly set up emergency facilities for events such as this oil spill. This triage center below is excellent in that the flow through water systems will provide excellent water quality for these animals.

Photo credit (left): AP/John Raoux
Photo credit (right): SeaWorld Rescue

The other significant and current news regarding sea turtles is the announcement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the NOAA Fisheries Service to relocate nests. They plan to dig up upwards of 70,000 sea turtle eggs along the nesting beaches in Alabama and Florida in hopes of salvaging this nesting season. In short, the fear is that the hatchlings will enter the Gulf and either consume contaminated food and die or perish in the oil itself. I'll summarize the situation for you, however you should really read about it yourself (see link below).

I have read most every online story about this issue and have attached a link below for the best article. This article is the most significant since it quotes both Barbara Schroeder, biologist in charge of sea turtles for NOAA (read more about her here) and Sandy MacPherson, biologist in charge of sea turtles for the Fish and Wildlife Service. These two women have made it their life's work to study, promote and protect sea turtles. Their combined impact on sea turtles is immeasurable. It brings me great comfort to know that they are leading the charge to save as many sea turtle as possible throughout this oil spill disaster.

Barbara Schroeder and Sandy MacPherson both know and acknowledge that the nest relocation plan will have its risks and that they expect some number of mortality. The relocation plan, directed by Sandy, outlines strict handling protocols and transport protocols. Relocating nests is not a new science and they will use every effort to reduce the number of deaths. Through the natural process of nesting, hatchlings emerging from the nest already experience a high mortality rate. Eggs are dug up and consumed by predators, nests flood and birds and other animals consume many of the hatchlings as they crawl down the beach. I can only speculate that the mortality in a controlled environment eliminating the factors above might be equal or less than the natural mortality rate... only time will tell. Either way they have to do something to salvage this nesting season. The devastation on the population if we loose this entire nesting season could prove disastrous for Kemp's ridleys and loggerheads in particular.

Click here for access to the article I mentioned above.

- Connie

As always, use this link if you're looking for ways you can help during the disaster in the Gulf.
Posted by Connie at 10:11 AM 0 comments
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11/11/09

The Marine Animal Rescue Team's Jeff Corwin Experience!

Melissa, Jeff and Adam drawing blood on Bandelier.


Yesterday we had a special visit from Jeff Corwin. He came by to take a look at our turtles and hang out for a small while at the aquarium. Jeff has recently finished filming a new documentary for MSNBC, airing on November 22, and he has just had a new book published called 100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth's Most Endangered Species, which tells of the plight of many of the world's most endangered species.

His visit to our Kemp's ridley sea turtle named Bandelier makes perfect sense since Kemp's ridleys are critically endangered and their habitat could easily be decimated by human encroachment and/or global warming. It was very interesting to hear Jeff talk about his experience with hawksbill sea turtles in Indonesia. The tiny population of about 800 hawksbill sea turtles that remain in those waters are illegally hunted for their meat, eggs and shells.

Jeff was very interested in Bandelier's little stump-like rear flippers.

While we discussed the plight of Bandelier, it helped us to look at the bigger picture for the conservation of this and other species of sea turtles. As temperatures rise not only do we have to worry about nesting beaches being lost to rising sea water level but we also have to be concerned about the core nest temperature. The sex of a sea turtle is determined by the nest temperature. As temperatures rise so to will those core temperatures producing only female sea turtles. You can learn more about the effects of climate change on sea turtle populations on the Aquarium's climate change pages.

Sea turtle hatchlings heading to open ocean at Boavista Island (Photo: Daniel Cejudo).

Next Thursday, Bostonians will have an opportunity to meet Jeff Corwin at the New England Aquarium. Even if you can't make the lecture, you can stop by and get a copy of Jeff's new book signed.

-Adam

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