Endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtle Rescue Plan for Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Rescue teams are preparing an endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtle rescue plan for the Gulf Coast Oil Spill. We have seen the Horizon Deepwater Oil Spill become the biggest environmental disaster in US history. The affect on the environment has been brutal. Gulf coast fishing has been closed, the oyster ecosystem is under siege and Gulf Coast bird life is under threat. Wild life rescue has relied on volunteers and experts, as the threat grows daily. Additionally we have our first Tropical Storm of the season.

The extent of the environmental threat is underscored by the cost. The cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill response has been massive. The oil spill has seen BP’s market capitalization fall by $100 billion as worries about bankruptcy mount. In the past few days with Tropical Storm Alex heading towards the Gulf of Mexico BP announced it has spent $300 million in the past three day. This is an astonishing $100 million-per-day. BP has spent $2.65 billion on the oil spill response so far. These costs are inclusive of trying to cap the well, clean up the environmental damage, and capture the leaking oil and paying compensation.

For the turtle hatchlings the oil spill has been a virtual death sentence and collection and transfer of their eggs is both essential and under a critical time constraint. Rescue teams are preparing an endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtle rescue plan for the Gulf Coast Oil Spill that truly does mean life or death. With the worst case scenario of 100,000 barrels per day being leaked into the Gulf of Mexico with a possible down hole leak these are very dark times.

Wildlife rescue efforts have been stepped up as the oil spill has reached the Mississippi coast. At this juncture it appears drilling relief wells are the best solution to stopping the oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. BP’s announced in a statement that the relief well drilling is on track. The relief well strategy is to block the leak at the point of impact of the well and oil reservoir. Initially the relief well drilling had a three-month expectation. We are just over half way in completion.

BP announced the well was being drilled at the rate of 1,000 feet per day last week. However with the threat of a tropical storm the drilling rate is at less than 100 feet a day for the past few days. The drilling rate is expected to pick up once the threat of the storm passes. With the down hole leak scenario looking more and more likely the relief wells are the only likely solution at this point. BP has doubled it’s oil capturing efforts over the past week. They have been capturing 22 – 24,000 barrels per day over the past week on average.

Virtually all of the 2010 U.S. Gulf Coast sea turtle hatchlings are under threat.  Not removing them from threatened breeding zones would be a fatal decision. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Charles Underwood said. 'It's almost certainly a death sentence,' to leave turtle eggs to hatch themselves. 'We'd expect to lose most, if not all of them'. 

Turtles that have already been born already face a threatened future. The Fish and Wildlife Service reports that along the U.S. Gulf Coast over 550 sea turtles have been found either dead or maimed. Many of these turtles however are deemed to be from natural attrition as there were no visible signs of oil or dispersing chemical damage, Further tests are being carried out. Dr. Robert Ziccardi who heads the Oiled Wildlife Care Network is overseeing sea turtle and marine mammals rescue efforts in the Gulf.

Controlled Oil Burn Deaths

Controlled oil burns have been carried out on the Gulf of Mexico to burn the oil off before washes ashore and covers the coastal marshlands. 

Dr Ziccardi said if the slick hit the marine ecosystem and coastal areas it would ‘do greater environmental harm.’ Unfortunately in this life and death rush ‘there are trade-offs' he said. 'The Coast Guard has been extremely cooperative on the things we're attempting to do to get turtles out of harms' way, if possible.' 

Dr. Ziccardi also said some turtles had 'likely' perished in the oil burning process, however he said 'we don't have any evidence to prove it one way or the other.' The wild rescue teams have worked in with the controlled-burn units to spot and collect turtles. In known turtle zones, or where there have been turtles spotted no burning is permitted.

WWF works globally to conserve marine turtles with he aim to reduce

• The loss and degradation of critical marine turtle habitats
• The negative impact of bycatch on marine turtles
• Unsustainable use and illegal trade in marine turtles and turtle products

These threats were already overhanging marine turtles. Now they have the BP Horizon Deepwater spill to contend with. Indeed WWF had seen that in the ‘Gulf of Mexico thirty years of conservation is helping Kemp's ridley turtle to make a slow comeback.’   

The Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) is the most endangered sea turtle. It is also the smallest sea turtle species. It is concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico though they have been known to cross the Atlantic to Europe during seasonal migration.  In 1990 biologist Richard Byles learned that adult female ridleys migrate along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in shallow water less than 150 feet deep. The Byles experiment involved NOAA satellite and GPS attached to a number of released female’s shells. Most of Kemp's ridley nestings occurs on Padre Island , which is in the other direction of the Gulf of Mexico from the oil spill.

Now this catastrophe.  The turtle is one of the most popular animals in zoos, marine parks and in the wild as the photos from WWF in this article show. Go to the link at the bottom of the park for information about WWF and marine sea total conservation.

The rescue attempts for the endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtle rescue plan for the Gulf Coast Oil Spill are unprecedented. 'Relocating sea turtle nests on occasion, nest by nest, in very small numbers, has been done before (but) nothing has even been considered at this massive scale, has never been attempted anywhere in the world.' U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Charles Underwood said.

Plans are for no less than 50,000 sea turtle eggs to be moved from the threatened hatching areas. Fortunately Sea Turtles return to the same breeding areas to lay their eggs. Sea Turtle mothers have only recently buried their eggs on the Alabama and northwestern Florida beaches. This area is where the majority of turtle nests are in the Northern Gulf of Mexico according to Underwood. The Horizon Deepwater oil spill occurred right as the sea turtles breeding season began.

The majority of the nests where eggs will be removed from are loggerhead turtle nests. The loggerhead turtle is the most common turtle species in the Gulf of Mexico that is endangered. The loggerhead turtle is the largest hard-shelled turtle on the planet. The average adult Loggerhead turtle grows to weigh around 250 pounds (113 kg).

Five of the world's seven sea turtle species are found in the Gulf of Mexico and are considered endangered. These are the Green, Hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, Leatherback and the Loggerhead turtle. It should be remembered that surviving juvenile turtles take decades to reach maturity. They do not bred until adulthood. This is why turtle population rescue is so important in this crisis.

There is no question for survival the eggs will have to be moved. If not unsuspecting innocent turtle hatchlings will most certainly swim likely swim into the crude oil and toxic chemical dispersants flowing into their habitat, the Gulf of Mexico.

Underwood said once dug up the turtle eggs will be shipped to the Atlantic coast of central Florida by truck. Their special temperature-controlled nests will house the eggs until they incubate. From there the plan is the hatchlings are released into the ocean.

Underwood estimates that out of a nest size of 100 to 126 eggs an average of 70 turtle eggs from each turtle nest will survive the journey by truck. It estimated that there are over 700 nests. Thus they expect to release over 50,000 baby turtles into the ocean. One female turtle lays the 25 to 30 eggs in four separate nesting periods during spring. Initially it was hoped the oil leak would be contained and such drastic rescue measures would not be needed. Sadly that is not the case.

Environmentalists have been very concerned about the massive oil spill entering the Gulf Current. This is particularly crucial for the sea turtle population. There are over 4,000 sea turtle nesting sites in the Florida Keys and Southwestern Florida. Underwood said these nests are not under threat at this time.

The endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtle rescue plan for the Gulf Coast Oil Spill is descriptive of the impact on the environment. Sea turtles have been under threat around the world before the spill. Threats have come from other environmental disasters, over fishing and seafood stock declines. The current whale hunting ban dispute going with Greenland, Norway, Iceland and Japan reminds us the threat to our sea mammals by man rather than nature. Here are two examples of man’s action wreaking havoc.