Sea Turtle Rescue Efforts Continue

According to NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (ORR), an additional 47 sea turtles were verified within the designated spill area in the last week (see June 1 post for May 31 summary totals).

NOAA's Facebook page has posted some photos (shown above and below) of the driftlines being searched for turtles as well as a couple of the juvenile turtles that were rescued during the efforts taking place 20-40 miles offshore. (Photo: from NOAA Facebook - courtesy of Georgia Dept. Natural Resources, showing senior biologist searching for turtles within the oilfilled Sargassum driftline. )

Yet according to a June 4 blog post by Dr. Charles Innis of the New England Aquarium who is in Louisiana helping with the efforts, no new turtles were brought into the local rehabilitation center, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas (AOA) between June 1-4 (and presumably the 5th as well) due to the bad weather in the Gulf. But on Sunday, June 6, at-sea efforts resumed, and five more turtles were captured, all but one were still alive and are now in rehabilitation.

Here are the updated numbers from NOAA's ORR as of June 6th:

• 47
• the number of additional turtle's verified within the designated spill area in the last week

• 300
  
• total number of sea turtles verified from April 30 - June 6 within the designated spill area

• 248 or 83%
  
• total number of turtles stranded dead

• 22 or 7%
  
• total number of turtles stranded alive
  
• 3
• of those 22, the number that subsequently died
  

• 30 or 10%
  
• total number of turtles captured during on-water rescue efforts by NOAA, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and other trained partners.
• 25
• of the 30 rescued turtles, the number in rehabilitation at Audubon Aquarium
• 2:3
• the number captured that were already dead; and the number which later died

• 35
  
• of the stranded (5) and captured turtles (30) with visible external evidence of oil
• 4:1
• the number stranded alive: the number stranded dead
  
• 2
• number of the 4 stranded alive that were caught during skimming operations
  

• 41
• turtles in rehabilitation

Many different groups have pitched in to help with the turtle-specific rescue efforts, including veterinarians from the NEA who are putting updates (when they get a break) on their own rescue blog. Check it out to see more photos and hear details about the work being done once rescued turtles are brought to shore at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans.
(Photo: from NOAA's Facebook page - courtesy of NOAA & Georgia DNR, showing NOAA veterinarian cleaning a recently rescued juvenile Kemp's Ridley.)

Once at the AOA, the turtles are examined, cleaned, and treated. In addition to the NEA blog with great photos and first hand accounts of the efforts, The Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program (LMMSTRP) is another one of the many partners helping in this effort, and have posted additional photos of the cleaning process on Flickr.

Weather reports of continuing southwesterly winds indicate that the oil slick is expected to continue moving north towards Louisiana as well as the Mississippi and Alabama barrier islands, and east toward the Florida Panhandle.

The next post will focus on another common theme of this San Diego Sea Turtle blog, and that is on the economic value of marine life and the ocean's resources.

Until then, the best sign off again seems to be with a big "Thank You!" to all the people helping with the rescue and cleanup efforts; and positive thoughts for the gushing to stop.

Photo: by CTT's hubby, Green turtle in St. Thomas