By Emily Collins
Published Jul 25, 2014 at 8:00 am

Efforts to protect Bermuda’s sea turtles have suffered another blow.

Just weeks after a petition was launched to help the endangered species — following the death of a turtle hit by a jet ski — another has had its flipper amputated at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (BAMZ).

It was found attempting to swim with fishing line wrapped around its right flipper.

During last Saturday’s Lionfish tournament, Sarah Gosling was driving her boat when she noticed a small turtle “struggling to reach the surface for breath”.

Having handled turtles as a volunteer for the Bermuda Turtle Project over the last two summers she knew how to safely bring the turtle onto her boat.

“It was so tightly wrapped around the turtle’s flipper it appeared to have cut through the skin,” she said.

After using a knife to cut the line, Ms Gosling called Conservation Services and brought the turtle to the Aquarium.

Dr Ian Walker, Principal Curator of Aquarium, operated on the animal and found that “the circulation to the turtle flipper had been cut off” and was forced to amputate the flipper.

A volunteer shows an injured sea turtle with its right front
flipper before it was removed by veterinarians at the
Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo

However, Bermuda is continuing to play its part to help the turtles survive.

The Bermuda Turtle Project — a programme sponsored by the Aquarium — is striving to “promote the conservation of marine turtles through research and education”.

According Dr Walker, the project is “the longest running turtle project in the world”.

The fight to protect the animals in Bermuda extends back to 1620, a mere 11 years after the colonisation of the Island.

The House of Assembly passed a law against the killing turtles.

Each year the Turtle Project dedicates 20 days to sampling sessions on sea grass beds between the ledge flat reefs on the northern side of Bermuda.

During these sessions snorkellers collect data on temperature and depth as well as re-tagging, measuring and weighing the turtles.

From those sessions, researchers can gather more information in order to protect them.

Dr Walker, who has worked with the project for ten years, says people must learn more to know how to avoid harming them.

In the past the project has informed the public by hanging posters around Bermuda to create awareness and, since 1996, and has held a two-week course each summer on the biology and conservation of the turtles.

Volunteers remove fishing line from an
injured sea turtle last weekend.

Dr Walker stresses that “all sea turtles are visitors in Bermuda waters”.

Most of them hatch in the Caribbean or South America, he noted.

Almost all of those found in Bermuda’s waters are immature, according to the project’s website.

“Bermuda appears to be a place where young sea turtles grow up separate from adult animals, and nearly all that grow up here will return to the Caribbean Sea before they mature.”

The project explains that a lot can be done to protect turtles simply being aware.

It encourages people to avoid harming sea grass beds or coral reefs, urging boaters to be careful in areas with signs indicating turtles’ presence and to refrain from polluting the waters.

Dr Walker said he hoped people will continue to report injured turtles to the Aquarium, and noted that accidentally hurting a turtle with a fishing line is not a crime. They shouldn’t be afraid to report the hurt animal, he said.