Tag Archive: Sea turtle


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — More than two dozen cold-stressed sea turtles have been airlifted from New England to recover in balmy Florida.

Filed under: Animal Advocacy, Animal Rescue Stories — Leave a comment
December 11, 2012

 

Animal Rescue Stories

 

Cold sea turtles flown from New England to Florida

 

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More than two dozen cold-stressed sea turtles have been airlifted from New England to recover in balmy Florida.
Photographer: SeaWorld
Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

  • By: Associated Press

 

The Coast Guard flew the turtles to Orlando on Friday. The Daytona Beach News Journal reports ( http://bit.ly/VEEqBm ) that 20 turtles were taken to SeaWorld Orlando. Five loggerhead turtles were taken to the Volusia County Marine Science Center. Three other facilities in Florida also took in turtles.

A New England Aquarium spokesman says a record number of endangered and federally protected sea turtles have been treated this year for cold stress.

SeaWorld officials say an unseasonably warm November delayed the turtles’ exit from Cape Cod Bay. When water temperatures suddenly dropped, the turtles developed hypothermia and washed ashore.

The turtles will be returned to their natural habitat when water temperatures are warmer.

—

Information from: Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal, http://www.news-journalonline.com

 

 

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A year-long undercover investigation conducted by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) at the Cayman Turtle Farm,has revealed disturbing animal cruelty and potential human health risks.

Filed under: Animal Abuse, Animal Advocacy, Cruelty to animals, Protection — Leave a comment
October 16, 2012

Animal Advocacy

Animal Abuse  :  Cruelty to animals – Protection

Undercover Investigation at Tourist Hotspot Reveals Shocking Animal Cruelty

A year-long undercover investigation conducted by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) at the Cayman Turtle Farm, a popular tourist destination, has revealed disturbing animal cruelty and potential human health risks.

Overcrowding, neglect and disease-filled tank water poses risks to endangered animals and tourists alike

Watch the video

TORONTO, Oct. 15, 2012 /CNW/ – A year-long undercover investigation conducted by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) at the Cayman Turtle Farm, a popular tourist destination and the world’s last remaining facility that raises sea turtles for slaughter, has revealed disturbing animal cruelty and potential human health risks.

Video footage and photographs from the farm show thousands of endangered sea turtles being kept in dirty, crowded touch tanks. Swimming in water filled with their own waste, the turtles fight for food, bite each other and even resort to cannibalism. Many suffer from disease and birth defects, such as injured fins or missing eyes.

“Life on the Cayman Turtle Farm is a far contrast from how sea turtles live in the wild,” said Elizabeth Hogan, Oceans and Wildlife Campaigns Manager at WSPA. “It’s truly horrific to see this type of neglect and cruelty taking place at a tourist attraction. Not to mention the fact that these foul conditions aren’t only affecting the resident turtles – humans could be at risk, as well.”

The farm encourages visitors to touch and pick up the sea turtles. However, WSPA tested the touch tank water and found traces of Salmonella, E. Coli and Vibrio vulnificus – meaning that visitors who touch the turtles are at risk for contracting these diseases and then possibly spreading them to fellow passengers back on board their cruise ships. According to a 2012 poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, 69% of cruise ship passengers who visited the Cayman Turtle Farm since 2009 were unaware of these health risks, and the majority would not have visited the attraction had they known.

“The bottom line is that the farm is currently posing great threats to turtle welfare and human health,” added Hogan. “We want to help the farm change for the better, but its unwillingness to meet us halfway is posing a great challenge.”

On July 3, WSPA met with the Cayman Turtle Farm owners to discuss its investigation findings and propose a plan for the farm to transition its business to a sea turtles rehabilitation and research centre. To date, the farm is not willing to change.

To learn more about WSPA’s campaign to end sea turtle cruelty at the farm, please visit www.StopSeaTurtleFarm.org

About the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)
WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) is the world’s leading animal welfare charity. We have been protecting animals around the world for over 30 years. We passionately believe that animal welfare matters.

At WSPA we will always expose and oppose the exploitation and suffering of animals. We believe animal cruelty must end, whether that animal is in the wild, living in the community, caught up in a disaster, or being farmed.

Today, WSPA works in over 50 countries, collaborating with local communities, NGOs and governments that can help us change animals’ lives for the better. We also act for animals at a global level, using our United Nations consultative status to give them a voice.

We work responsibly and sustainably, to put animal welfare on the global agenda and show that what’s good for animals is good for the world.

For more information about WSPA visit www.wspa.ca; follow us on Twitter or ‘Like’ us on Facebook.

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14 protected sea turtles rescued from a net laid down by Chinese poachers

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July 15, 2012

Philippines rescues sea turtles from poachers’ net

by Staff Writers
Manila (AFP)

photo

Philippine authorities rescued 14 protected sea turtles that were caught in a net laid down by Chinese poachers, a navy commander said Saturday.

However one sea turtle was already dead when a joint team from the navy and the environment department arrived Friday in the remote area off the western island of Palawan, said Major Ferdinand Atos.

Atos, commander of naval forces in the area, said informants had told them that Chinese poachers planted the net a week ago in the coastal district of Balabac.

“They enter the waters of Balabac, riding in a speedboat and they plant their nets, using their contacts among the locals,” he told AFP.

The 200-metre (660-foot) net left by the poachers was removed and the 14 surviving sea turtles were set free, Atos said.

He said informants had told them that Chinese fishermen used their contacts to enter the area frequently and would bring their catch to Half-Moon Shoal, an outcrop in the Spratly islands claimed by both the Philippines and China.

The shoal has come under closer scrutiny after China announced that one of its naval frigates had run aground there.

Sea turtles are protected under Philippine law and catching them is punishable by at least 12 years in jail.

Chinese fishermen poaching in Philippine waters have become an issue in recent months.

In April, Philippine authorities tried to arrest Chinese fishermen taking sea turtles and other protected species from Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

They were blocked by Chinese government ships, triggering a continuing standoff over the area which is claimed by both countries.

 

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“The early life of sea turtles occurs at the ocean’s surface, where there’s an increasing amount of floating plastics that are proving fatal to hatchlings,” : PhD student Julia Reisser

Filed under: Animal Advocacy, Environmental, Pollution, Preservation, Wildlife — 1 Comment
June 18, 2012

First Ever Map of Floating Plastic Aims to Save Baby Sea Turtles


jemasmith/CC BY 2.0

A PhD student at The University of Western Australia is working on an ambitious project. Julia Reisser, who has studied sea turtles for the last nine years, wants to create the first map that shows distribution of floating marine plastics in Australian waters. That map will be overlapped with information about pathways of sea turtle hatchlings, and hopefully will shed light on where the most dangerous areas for growing sea turtles may exist.

“The early life of sea turtles occurs at the ocean’s surface, where there’s an increasing amount of floating plastics that are proving fatal to hatchlings,” PhD student Julia Reisser says in an article from University of Western Australia. “My work is identifying the places contributing most to the increase in plastics in Australia’s oceans and how this links to sea turtle life cycles.”

The problem of plastic pollution in our oceans cannot be understated. Many marine species mistake the plastic for food, which can be lethal. As you can see, a bit of floating plastic could look a lot like these jellyfish a Green sea turtle is munching on:


© Jaymi Heimbuch

Mistaking plastics for food has devastating consequences, causing internal damage or starvation:

The idea of creating a map of floating plastic is exciting, but also extremely challenging. One of the biggest issues behind marine plastic pollution is that it is extremely hard to quantify and understand because the ocean is so vast and forever moving, carrying plastics with it. Luckily, though, researchers like Reisser are not giving up, and her research could mean a lot of saving sea turtles. Six of the seven sea turtle species on earth are listed as threatened or endangered, so the more we can do to help hatchlings reach adulthood, the better.

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