Oil Spill Killed Hundreds Of Sea Turtles, Say Researchers

Robert Hune-Kalter - Talk Radio News Service

According to experts, the massive oil spill off the Gulf Coast has killed hundreds of sea turtles. 

“We have about 560 stranded turtles documented. Most of those stranded turtles are dead, that’s the normal course for stranded turtles,” Barbara Schroeder, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries National Sea Turtle Coordinator, said during a conference call with other researchers.  “About 60 were found alive and about 45 remain in rehabilitation.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Sea Turtle Coordinator Sandy MacPherson explained efforts to relocate sea turtle nests to the Atlantic Coast.

“The unified command approved plan is currently being implemented and it involves excavating sea turtle nests along Alabama and Florida panhandle beaches and carefully placing them in specially prepared boxes using sand from their own nests,” explained MacPherson. “They are then carefully tended by innovative health applications biologists in a climate controlled facility at the Kennedy Space Center.”

MacPherson said that researchers do not know if the turtles will find their way back to old nesting grounds after being released on east central Florida beaches.

“This nest translocation effort is primarily a rescue effort to prevent hatchlings from encountering oil, or oil product,” MacPherson said.