33 endangered turtles released into waters of Gulf of Mexico

Rescuers on Thursday released 33 endangered young turtle into the waters of Gulf of Mexico; approximately 40 miles southwest of Grand Isle, Louisiana after a survey confirmed that the water is safe for creatures.

Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, said in a press statement, “We are able to release these turtles because they’re now healthy and we’re seeing recovery in the surface habitats of the Gulf of Mexico.

“They are being released within federal waters off the coast of Louisiana that earlier this month, NOAA reopened to fishing. This was another important sign of improvement in the health of the Gulf of Mexico.”

These turtles had been rescued by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Audubon Nature Institute, three months back from Louisiana, Florida and Georgia.

Then they were successfully rehabilitated at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, where scientists treated, cleaned and de-oiled them.

The turtles that were released in the waters on Thursday included species of green Kemp’s ridley, hawksbill and loggerhead sea turtles.

Rescue efforts paid off
Dubbed as the worst oil spill in the history of the United States, the spill began after an explosion on April 20 on the offshore drilling platform Deepwater Horizon took place, killing 11 men.

Within two days, the whole platform sank and oil started to take over Gulf waters, making everyone worried about the lives of sea creatures.

“They are being released within federal waters off the coast of Louisiana that earlier this month, NOAA reopened to fishing. This was another important sign of improvement in the health of the Gulf of Mexico,” stated Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

For the very first time scientists carried out a huge rescue mission to save the endangered sea species and managed to rescue over 500 turtles from the oil spill.

Around 400 of the rescued turtles were placed in rehabilitation as they were heavily oiled and need immediate treatment. However, those who did suffer much were released immediately (after running some tests) in other healthy habitats.

Rescuers not just started a mission to save rare endangered turtles but also began an unprecedented rescue mission to save thousands of rare turtles’ eggs.

On path to recovery
Many experts have welcomed agencies decision to release turtles into their natural habitat as it’s also an indication that Gulf waters is becoming safe.

"Returning this group of sea turtles to their home waters is ... a sign that Louisiana is on the path towards recovery," said Randy Pausina, an assistant secretary for Louisiana's office of fisheries.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to combat the residual oil left in the gulf waters, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has also started an initiative to build series of low lying sand islands in the Gulf of Mexico.

Endangered turtles sent to U.S. for new life

Los Angeles, Oct. 20 (CNA) A total of 50 rare yellow- headed temple turtles arrived in the U.S. city of Atlanta Wednesday for new life through a cooperative effort by Eva Airways, the Taipei Zoo and the U.S.-based Turtle Survival Alliance, according to airline officials. The Eva Airways flight carrying the turtles left Hong Kong Oct. 19 for Atlanta via Taipei. The animals will be sent to the Turtle Survival Alliance, which will arrange for them to be distributed among various shelters around the country. The officials said after being notified of the rescue mission through the zoo's Conservation and Research Center, the carrier agreed to help transport the 600-kg cargo for only a nominal fee. The turtles were among a haul of 1,300 smuggled freshwater turtles that were seized by Hong Kong marine police in February. The yellow-headed temple turtle, the largest freshwater turtle in Asia, is an endangered species. Without the assistance of EVA Air, the turtles would have been destroyed in Hong Kong because their origin could not be identified, the officials said. (By Leaf Jiang and Olivia Wang) ENDITEM/J

Coral Reef Studies - Turtle, dugongs 'at risk under climate change'

'Turtle and Dugong at risk' ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies ©

The 'turtle and dugong capital of the world', the northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and Torres Strait region, faces increased pressure under climate change from human actions such as fishing, hunting, onshore development and pollution.

'Depletion of turtle and dugong numbers increases their vulnerability to other threats and lowers their ability to cope with climate change,' Dr Mariana Fuentes of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University will tell the Coral Reef Symposium in Canberra today.

Dr Fuentes says that turtles in particular are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which include decreases in hatching success, loss of nesting areas and overheated beaches, which will decrease the turtles’ reproductive output and may significantly alter the sex ratio of their offspring.

Dr. Fuentes’ research into the green, hawksbill and flatback turtles and well as dugongs in the northern GBR and Torres Strait is seeking to establish priorities for the management of marine megafauna to increase their resilience to climate change.

'Managers face the challenge of addressing the direct effects of climate change, as well as ongoing threats that dugongs and sea turtles face throughout their geographic range,' she explains. 'For logistical, financial and political reasons, managers cannot address all threats simultaneously, and so need to prioritize their actions.

Of particular concern is the effect of climate change on the gender balance of turtle population, Dr Fuentes says: 'The temperature of the beach sand determines the gender of the hatchlings – warmer sand produces more females while cooler sand produces more males.'

'Under current conditions the nesting grounds are already producing more females. With an increasing temperature, these turtles are at risk of stretching out the ratio, though we can’t yet predict exactly when it will cause an unbalanced population.'

'While sea turtles have survived large climatic fluctuations during their evolutionary history, modern rates of climate change are much faster, and are coupled with additional human pressures,' says Dr Fuentes. 'We still do not know whether turtles can adapt to modern rates of climate change.'

Turtle and Dugong at risk - ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies © Click Here to view large photo

Dugongs may experience indirect effects of climate change and human activity through impacts on their main food source, seagrass. Seagrass diebacks are linked to lower reproduction, increased mortality and emigration of dugongs.
Dr Fuentes has been working closely with indigenous communities in the Torres Strait region and northern GBR to monitor turtle numbers and condition and to track the movements of dugongs.

She says it will be important to take a range of short-term and long-term measures to protect turtles and dugongs from climate change, including:

* reducing the negative stresses that they are currently subject to.
* actively trying to change the habitat they use (e.g. by shading nests, re-vegetating beaches, and replacing lost sand).
* protecting areas that seem to offer the best conditions as refuges in the future.

'Turtles and dugongs have numerous roles – apart from their cultural and spiritual significance to the indigenous community, they are important for the tourism industry. Being at the top of the food chain also means that they have high ecological significance.'

The loss of these species would have a huge impact on the northern Australian marine environment and on indigenous communities, she warns.

'There are still many uncertainties over how turtles and dugongs will be impacted by climate change. For the time being the best prospects for their survival are to mitigate climate change (by reducing carbon emissions) and to reduce negative pressure on turtles and dugongs from activities such as hunting and coastal development.'

'However, as the impacts of climate change become more extreme, more ‘active’ adaptation strategies may be necessary. The success of each adaptation option will depend on climatic impact and local social, economic and cultural conditions, and therefore needs to be considered on a case by case basis, and at a local scale,' Dr Fuentes explains.

Dr Fuentes will be presenting the results of her research on Friday the October 8th at 'Coral reefs in a changing environment', at the Academy of Science’s Shine Dome. Media are invited to attend the coral symposium and interview the scientists.

Gulf Turtle Egg Relocation Judged a Success

Finally some good news to report following the Deepwater Horizon summer. A massive effort to rescue thousands of turtle eggs appears to have worked. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is 14,676 hatchlings -- mostly loggerheads - from the roughly 25,000 sea turtles eggs that it moved to Florida's east coast from northern beaches.

With a hatching success rate over 50%, biologists have a lot to be happy about. Still, there remain concerns whether the egg transfer will impact the turtles later on in life. In particular, they still don't know which beaches the turtles will return to. As a report in Live Science noted, there's uncertainty about whether the relocation disrupted the process of imprinting, which allows female turtles to set up nests on the beach where they hatched. "Some think that imprinting occurs in the egg, others that it occurs as newly hatched turtles crawl towards the sea, and some believe that it may be a combination of the two. So it is unknown to which beaches turtles incubated primarily on northen Gulf beaches then released from beaches on the Atlantic Ocean will return."

Turtle nesting numbers up, surprising experts

By DINAH VOYLES PULVER, Environment Writer

October 3, 2010 12:05 AM

With a month to go in sea turtle nesting season along Florida'scoastlines, observers are feeling pretty optimistic.

Nesting numbers are up at key beaches around the state that are used for tracking overall trends, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That includes all three major species in Florida: loggerheads, greens and leatherbacks.

Loggerhead and green turtle nesting also increased locally this year, showing big improvements after dramatic declines in nesting last year.

Officials and advocates say they hope the increases mean some of the efforts to bring back the endangered and threatened turtles are working.

The results have been especially surprising for observers because nesting season got off to a slow start and they weren't optimistic, said Blair Witherington, a research scientist with the commission who is based in Brevard County.

"In years past, we've noticed cold water often puts a damper on sea turtle nesting," Witherington said. The water offshore early this season was "very cold," making it look like this could be a "very poor nesting season."

"Then the water warmed up and the sea turtle nesting season really warmed up," he said.

At beaches all along the local coastline, observers have been surprised and delighted by the number of turtle nests. At Canaveral National Seashore, with 12 miles in Volusia and 12 in Brevard County, it has been a "great" season, said John Stiner, resource management specialist. Observers counted 5,583 total nests over the 24 miles.

"We're quite a ways over what we've had before," Stiner said, more than 1,000 nests over the previous record high in 2000.

Elsewhere along local beaches it "looks like a very good year," said Beth Libert, president of the Volusia/Flagler Turtle Patrol, which monitors nests in Flagler County and north of Ponce Inlet in Volusia.

Keeping close watch over sea turtles can be an emotional roller coaster, with nest numbers fluctuating wildly from year to year, and hatchlings falling victim to any number of catastrophes. A rare Kemp's Ridley nest in Volusia this year caused great excitement, but the eggs never hatched. An evaluation showed the eggs were infertile.

Observers have been particularly concerned about loggerhead nests, which suffered a declining trend in the past decade after a climb in the 1990s. A jump in loggerhead nest numbers in 2008 had officials hoping things were turning around, but nest numbers dropped again last year, with just a little more than half the nests of the previous year.

This year, the loggerhead nests bounced back almost to their 2008 level, with 2,155 nests counted along the Volusia coastline. In 2008, there were 2,239.

"It has been very encouraging," Stiner said.

While a bit of celebration may be in order for a singularly good year, Witherington said one great season doesn't reverse the decline seen in loggerhead nesting during the past 10 years.

Experts are never really certain why the numbers rise some years and drop in others. A rise in one season may simply reflect the number of turtles that decided to migrate to nest, he said. The biggest influence on any given season isn't the overall turtle population, but the number of turtles that nest.

"Every year we're just seeing part of the population nesting," Witherington said. More nests over three or four years would mean an increase in turtle numbers.

Perhaps many of the conservation measures taken in the past couple of decades are having a positive impact, he said.

One of the "most important milestones" was a rule that took effect just after the turn of the century, requiring the openings on turtle excluder devices on fishing nets to be large enough to exclude adult loggerheads, he said. "That benefited nesting sea turtles a great deal."

It has also been a big year for green turtles, Witherington said, with nests still appearing almost daily.

Libert said two green turtle nests were found on Flagler beaches Thursday morning. Witherington was surprised to hear about the number of green turtle nests at Canaveral.

The seashore reports a total of 1,314 green turtle nests so far, with 409 of those in Volusia. "That's just absolutely unheard of," Witherington said.

"Green turtles are a unique success story," he said. "Back in the late '80s in Volusia County, there were probably just a handful of sea turtle nests during a season."