Posted on 05/03/2010 12:51:02 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
This morning eight sea turtles were found dead in Pass Christian, in addition to nine yesterday, bringing the total number of dead turtle sightings in the wider area to at least 31.
Tests on the animals were being carried out at the Institute of Sea Mammal Studies in Gulfport, 10 minutes' drive along the sea from Pass Christian. The institute specialises in the study and treatment of stranded dolphins, sea turtles and other marine life and has a dedicated laboratory where 23 turtles are being kept in plastic bags in an animal morgue. Among them are Loggerheads, Leatherheads and Kemp's Ridley – the most critically endangered species of sea turtle in the Gulf.
Dr Moby Solangi, the institute's director, said necropsies would be carried out to see whether the turtles' deaths had anything to do with the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig and the 220,000 gallons of oil that are still being spewed into the Gulf each day. A team of vets would be looking to see if the animals had respiratory problems associated with inhaling oil fumes, or had consumed fish contaminated with oil.
Further tissue samples would be taken for laboratory testing for evidence of residues of hydrocarbons.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
“necropsies would be carried out to see whether the turtles’ deaths had anything to do with the explosion”
THE explosion or AN explosion? Singular or lpural? Natural or manmade?
I hate to hear that, I love turtle soup!
What the hell do they know about it?
Turtles are amphibians, not mammals.
Someone had better start a map of sea turtle sightings, live and dead, like this one off of Teddy’s home territory:
http://www.seaturtlesightings.org/viabilitymap.html
And here we have a man caused disaster, and our so-called president did nothing for 11 days, to try and stop the spill. If only they had gotten there sooner.
It's sad to see the sea animals die, we had massive die-offs in South Florida over the last winter, it was so cold even the coconut palms succumbed.
The face of the Obama regime.
Or Turtle Oil - best cure for sunburn, only available south of the border.
You watch Discovery channel at all? They call every *** thing “Animals” now.
"Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job!
While turtles are clearly not mammals, I think you’ll find they are aquatic reptiles, not amphibians.
But I agree with your point ;-)
ALSO ... The headline says deaths are soaring. BUT who was looking for dead turtles BEFORE to see if the presence of dead turtles IS above the norm AFTER. But sadly these turtles are at risk. (particularly if they DO eat dead fish contaminated with oil or ingest the tar balls that form)
Oh, and how does a swimming fish get contaminated with oil? also ... Oil on the surface of the ocean does not generally generate a fish kill either. Is the author perhaps a bit loose on the facts?
Turtles are reptiles. Air-breathers.
Yeah, they’re not mammals, but the institute’s name is more specialized than the people that work there.
OK. so the number of deaths ARE reasonably reported to be higher than normal, and not just by a headline writer at the Guardian: “Solangi said that until the results of the necropsies were known it would be impossible to tell whether the turtles had been killed by oil. He pointed out, however, that the number of deaths was much greater than normal, even at a time of year when sea turtles tend to come in closer to shore and are sometimes found washed up dead on the beach.”
But the comment about “red blood” staining the sand, coming from the mouth and other areas might suggest trauma. Dunno.
Yep, birds, fish, even insects.
How sad and what a horrible way for an animal to die.
LMAO, post of the day!
If only they would have stayed in the shrimp nets. TED’s fault.
LOL
This article appeared yesterday in another publication. However, these turtle deaths were occurring BEFORE the oil spill. I was wondering how long it would be before some publication started in on the disinformatsiya, pointing to the oil spill as the possible culprit.
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