By Owain Johnston-Barnes
Published Aug 12, 2014 at 12:17 pm (Updated Aug 12, 2014 at 12:17 pm)

The public is again being asked to be careful on the Island’s waters to protect sea turtles after the bodies of several young turtles were found with injuries related to human activity.

Bermuda Turtle Project coordinator Jennifer Gray said the remains of 13 turtles were examined over the weekend in a series of necropsies, including 11 juvenile green turtles and two juvenile hawksbill turtles.

Of the 13, three showed scarring from boat strikes while one of the green turtles was found to have three fish hooks caught inside its oesophagus and gut.

Ms Gray said the results show the importance of public awareness, stressing: “The public need to know that if they find a turtle, they should immediately call the aquarium  who wish to receive any animal dead or alive as there is much we can learn from studying them.

Tell-tale signs: Bermuda Turtle Project scientist Peter Maeylan,  right,
and visiting course participant Dogan Sozbilen, from Pamukkale University
in Turkey, investigate the cause of death and quality of life of sea
turtles by examining pieces of the animal’s bodies.

“The public also need to slow down on the water and enjoy the wildlife rather than ‘run over it’. Be responsible fishers and try to recover and responsibly dispose of all fishing gear and never trash the ocean.”

The Royal Gazette reported last month that one turtle was killed after being hit by jet ski and another had its flipper amputated after it was also struck.

Sea turtles do not hatch in Bermuda but they frequently visit the waters around the Island as juveniles on their way between the Sargasso Sea and their nesting sites in Caribbean.

The Bermuda Turtle Project took to the knife this Saturday at the Aquarium,
to disect the bodies of dead sea turtles found around the island. Local researchers
and scientists, such as Bermuda Turtle Project scientist Peter Maeylan (right) and visiting
course participant, Dogan Sozbilen (left) from Pamukkale University in Turkey, are
investigating the cause of death and quality of life of sea turtles by examining
pieces of the animal's bone and flesh. Turtles were labeled to keep track of data
recorded; one turtle - #WRC4065 - died from swallowing three fishing hooks, which
were found lodged into its' esophagus. (Photo by Nicola Muirhead)

Turtles tagged in Bermuda have been spotted in Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, St Lucia and the US.

For the past 18 years the Bermuda Turtle Project, which is sponsored by the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo, has operated in-water courses, aimed at educating participants on the biology and conservation of sea turtles.

By examining the bodies of sea turtles, in addition to tagging and tracking the animals, the programme hopes to learn more about the turtles and the threats facing them.

Regarding the results of the necropsies, Ms Gray said that one of the hawksbill turtles had sargassum in its stomach, suggesting that it had been living well off shore, while the other appeared to have been feeding on sponges in the Island’s waters. Many of the green turtles, meanwhile, appeared emaciated and had a large number of parasites.

“A green turtle, once it leaves its nesting beach as a hatchling, swims straight out to sea, as far away from land as they can get,” she explained. “They spend a number of years in the Sargasso Sea and gyres of the North Atlantic where they are omnivorous. Some cue tells them it’s time to leave the open ocean and this pelagic lifestyle to take up a life in coastal areas where they become herbivores feeding exclusively on sea grasses.

“Trends are telling us that these animals transitioning from one habitat to another are compromised in many ways. They have to find a safe shore, change their gut bacteria to digest a new food source and change many behaviours in the process.

“The general principal of survival of the strongest applies and the weaker animals sometimes don’t make it and are overcome by starvation and parasitic loading.”