Sea turtles continue to wash ashore along the Gulf, forcing the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to scramble and figure out what is causing the spike. Last week, the Natural Resources Defense Council and The Huffington Post were first to publish blogs about the sea turtle deaths in Mississippi.
Since then, the national media picked up the story. Last Friday, NMFS released a statement with some details about its investigation:
In the past few weeks, we've seen an increase in turtle strandings in the northern Gulf, primarily in Mississippi. The spring time is the typical time when turtle strandings in this region begin to increase, but the sharp increases in recent days are of concern to us….NOAA Fisheries is in contact with the states of MS and LA regarding current trawl and other fishery activity that can result in turtle by catch and mortality. In addition, tests will be done for biotoxins, such as those from harmful algae blooms, which are common in the Gulf. …All causes of death, including petroleum, will be investigated when possible based on decomposition. During a necropsy, the full GI tract is examined for product or evidence of oil ingestion. Additionally, samples are taken for PAH analysis. In addition, all turtles are being carefully examined for signs of external oiling.
Like the dolphin strandings this year, it’s likely that many more turtles have died and will never be found. A recent study of dolphin deaths showed the true number of mortalities is probably 50 times what is recovered. As of Friday, NOAA says recent deaths of sea turtles, all of which are included on the Endangered Species list, include 6 in Alabama, 10 in Louisiana, and 47 in Mississippi.
Dead sea turtles found recently in Waveland, MS Photos by Shirley Tillman
Make that at least 50 confirmed sea turtle deaths in Mississippi. This weekend, Pass Christian resident Shirley Tillman found three more dead turtles. Altogether, she has found nine this year. Over her more than 30 years in the community, she has never seen a dead turtle before.
On Saturday, she took another walk on the beach, this time with a PBS television producer. Within an hour they found one turtle badly decomposed and hidden in marsh grass near Waveland. Shirley says she only discovered it because of the smell. On Sunday she went back to check on the turtle, which had been spray-painted orange for pick-up by authorities. That's when she was told there was yet another dead turtle on the beach nearby.
“It’s crazy that I go out there nearly every day and find them. It makes me mad that NOAA is now trying to blame the shrimp fishermen for killing them in their nets when the shrimp season isn’t even open yet and hardly any boats are out there.”
Shrimp fishermen feel the same way. They are required to use turtle excluders, devices that allow turtles to escape drowning in shrimp nets. Every year some turtles are killed by fishing boats inadvertently, but shrimpers say to blame them for the recent jump in turtle deaths is hard to believe.
“It’s about as ridiculous as anything else I heard during this whole oil spill,” said Louisiana Shrimp Association President Clint Guidry. “This time of year shrimp fishermen are fixing their boats and getting ready for the main season that begins in May. I guess they’ve run out of excuses after saying everything is being killed by dead zones and algae, so now they need to blame us.”
Sea turtle found near Long Beach, MS Photo by Laurel Lockamy
Dead sea turtle found near Waveland, MS Photo by Shirley Tillman
Nearly two weeks ago a new oil spill from a shallow well off the Louisiana coast leaked oil into the water that resulted in a huge slick that stretched for miles and polluted parts of Grand Isle and other nearby marshes. The Coast Guard says it was due to oil leaking from a well being capped by Anglo-Suisse, an oil drilling firm based in Texas. Initially the company said it had leaked only 5 gallons of oil.
But the oil slick was clearly much bigger. According to a Skytruth, an analysis of the slick using satellite imagery shows the well may have gushed as much as 640,000 gallons of Louisiana crude into the sea. It’s not clear what impact this oil spill has had on marine life.
In Mississippi, Shirley Tillman believes BP oil has something to do with the dead sea life she constantly encounters by the shore. And she wonders how this may affect vacationers now flocking to the region. “It’s bad enough for turtles and dolphins to be dying, but should people and their children be swimming in this water too?”
That is not the kind of message BP or local politicians want to hear. Major PR campaigns are underway to convince people the Gulf is normal and the seafood is safe. That’s the message they want to people to hear.
But that message is at odds with the views of Gulf residents like Shirley Tillman. She sees a different reality every day she walks the beach.
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http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20110331/OPINION/103310320/1014/We-need-answers-about-dispersants-used-BP-spill
And what about 'air breathing animals'?
There are far too many people on this planet. We over-use resources - we exploit resources and species - we destroy the environment - and the tills keep ringing.
Mother Earth will heave a sigh of relief when we are gone.
VP
Remember Poland? NOAA was going to send seafood samples to Poland labs to test for chemical toxins. How did that work out for us?
Then again, even as torrents of highly radioactive water are flowing into the Pacific, the nuclear industry is well along with a massive new PR campaign claiming -- insisting -- that nukes are safer than sunshine.
BP should have had 100's of 1000's of people storm their headquarters and shiver in fear of the wreath before them !
And guess who owns Bright Source? Yep, BP among others. Sure, we are paying for it, but they own it.
BIG ENERGY HAS ONE BUSINESS MODEL - KILL WILDERNESS, MONOPOLIZE POWER AND RIP US OFF. There are a few variations on the theme (radiate us in Japan, blow us up and bury our homes in ash in the SE USA, poison the Gulf, scrape mile after square mile bare in the desert) - all of it is bad for the economy, bad for the environment and bad for democracy.
If you want anything to change, you can't just back the same criminals wearing a different hat. you need to support democratically-owned point of use solutions so we can affordably, quickly, and easily make ourselves exponentially more energy independent than we are now. We can't let Big Energy monopolize our sunshine while killing off more wilderness, it's just too insane...
thanks for fighting the good fight - fanned! it's as much about WHO is owning our power as HOW that power is produced. we can never forget that. WE will do the right things for ourselves, our families and our communities. Chevron, BP, Massey, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other energy profiteers will NOT!!
Almost zero media coverage of latest spill and our friends at BP are drilling deep again.
We are in a race with Japan to see who can completely foul their coastal waters.
The people who live here along Gulf have voted for politicians who treat the Gulf like a cesspool. If they wanted to clean up the Gulf, they would stop voting for and funding democrats and republicans.
The Gulf States are now governed by BP who bought the Gulf for $20 billion. The ocean is not a resource for Americans, it is a resource for exclusive use for big oil (who let fisherman use it on occasion because it makes for good PR). People who live along the coast have spoken - they like the oily, polluted waters and they will vote for BP every time.
I am a few hours away from the Gulf and it kills me to see this. If you want to make a difference, don't vote for or fund democrats or republicans along the coast, don't visit or vacation there. It is completely appropriate to use economic and political pressure for positive change.
Neither party wants a clean ocean, they only want oil. They'll happily poison us all to get it. Don't participate in or support the madness.
Actually I caught quite a few of them about ten days ago while I was near the coast. The waters were crystal clear. I saw gazzillions of baby shrimp minnows and crabs and fished near oyster beds that appeared quite healthy.
My original question was quite serious. Why air breathers and not fish? I know turtles love to eat jelly fish. Do dolphins also eat jellyfish? Are the jellyfish contaminated?
The NMFS was looking researching elevated dolphin mortality in the area in February 2010 well BEFORE the BP leak began. I also know that trawlers kill turtles if they don't use excluder devices on their nets and right now it wouldn't surprise me that trawlers might opt not to use them since the devices reduce their catch of shrimp by some 10-20%. I could see where the average trawler, given last years closed season, would cheat this year to make a bigger paycheck. (I'm not condoning it, just saying it wouldn't surprise me if they chose to violate the law and skip using them.)
Forgive me while I wait for evidence as opposed to jumping on the hysteria bandwagon.