When I Grow Up, I Want to Be A Sea Turtle Researcher...

Today as I was finishing that last blog post and flipping through images on Marine Photobank, a family of three stopped by the office asking about our work with sea turtles. My supervisor was in the other room, so I jumped up to greet them and give them free stickers and postcards and tell them about the leatherback sea turtles off the California coast.

They were visiting from Martha's Vineyard and had found a stranded, cold-stunned Kemp's ridley sea turtle last year on the island. After recovering at facilities at the New England Aquarium and University of New England, the family had the pleasure of releasing it back into the wild from Cape Cod. How awesome! The little girl was adorable—very hyperactive, and loved talking about "her turtle." I wanted to pick her up and squeeze her she was so adorable. As they were preparing to leave I thanked the little girl for helping us save the sea turtles. "Someday, I want to be a sea turtle researcher," she told me.

Me too.

Sea Life Threatened by Entanglement

Crab pot buoys, usually found as marine debris.

Last night I attended a presentation coordinated by the American Cetacean Society (ACS) on marine life entanglements. The presentation was given Kathi Koontz who works with the Marine Mammal Center on the Whale Entanglement Team. She is part of a group that responds to reports and sightings of entangled whales along the California coast. A very cool weekend job—I’m extremely jealous!

First, what sort of debris and objects are found on entangled animals? Mostly fishing line, fishing nets, various ropes, crab pots, buoys, fan belts, and much more. The majority of this material is made of plastic, which will not degrade or lose its shape and therefore causes significant damage.

Most of this debris is picked up by the animal and dragged for hundreds and hundreds of miles before the animal may be disentangled. Whale entanglement teams in Hawaii have reported findings of Alaskan fishing gear from the Bering Sea on entangled whales.

In some cases, debris may weigh a whale or other animal down so it cannot surface or cannot move. Other times attached buoys can slow down whales and not allow them to dive underwater.

It was reported at the meeting that 50 percent of the sighted marine animals possess scars from entanglement.

© Alberto Romeo/Marine Photobank

The whole disentanglement business started at the Center for Coastal Studies to help free-swimming humpback whales and North Atlantic right whales off the Eastern United States coast. 

A variety of specially designed gismos and gadgets are used to cut off the entanglements without harming the whale. If the disentanglement team cannot remove the debris, they may attach a telemetry buoy that will track the animal’s location so they may find it another day and try again.

Back in the days when gillnet fishing was allowed between the Farallones and the California coast, harbor porpoises were caught in the hundreds in the gillnets. Fishermen used to pull them up out of the water and cut off their fins and flukes to let them loose. Naturally, they would then die at sea and wash up onshore. The fishermen would rather kill thousands of animals instead of cut up their precious fishing nets.

Now that these gillnet fisheries have been outlawed in the area, the harbor porpoises are slowly coming back to the San Francisco Bay. Yay! See? This isn't just a lost cause, by preventing entanglement we could see positive change in our marine ecosystems.

Just last August the Whale Entanglement Team out here in California went in search of a reported entangled humpback whale off the coast of Mendocino. Instead, the team found an entangled gray whale with a rope and buoy wrapped around its body, through its mouth, and over both pectoral fins and the peduncle (the what?!). When the team tugged on the line to see if it would come lose on its own, they noticed that the line had severed the left pectoral fin. Eventually they were able to cut off the line, and the gray whale swam free; however, no sightings of a gray whale with a missing left pectoral fin have been reported since then so we don’t know what happened to the poor thing.

In the Farallones back in 2005, divers rescued a humpback whale that was caught by lines and crab pots and could not swim away. Article here!

So far in 2011 there has only been one report of an entangled whale near Monterey, but no further sightings of the animal.

Entanglement is a problem with all animal species, not just whales, and not just marine animals. Birds may choke on bottle caps and balloons, or get caught in those plastic six-pack holders. Sea turtles, sharks, and seals may get caught in fishing gear.

The Marine Mammal Center also focuses heavily on entangled seals and sea lions along the California coast, who are often found with fan belts or fishing line wrapped around their necks and snouts so they are unable to feed or breathe properly. In one instance, they had rescued a sea lion with fishing line around its neck that had cut through its skin and severed its trachea. Another sea lion had line wrapped around its mouth so it was unable to feed.

Entanglement is just one type of human interaction that harms marine animals. Other forms of human interaction may be fishing bycatch, seal bombs, or even just people shooting at the animals with a gun. Not as uncommon as you think. 

Also, seal bombs. I hadn’t heard about seal bombs until last night. People throw bombs at seals to scare them away. And also accidentally blow them up. The following quote is from the Friends of Animals website:

To catch fish, people have used explosive devices, hoping to deter marine mammals from interfering with their equipment or catch. Seal bombs still cripple those they are meant to deter… Seal bombs are small pieces of dynamite that can detonate under water. Often, a seal bomb is placed inside a fish and fed to a sea lion – even though deliberately using seal bombs to harm marine life is prohibited.

So please, if you would like to help out:

• Cut up circular pieces of plastic and trash so that it cannot be caught around an animal’s neck.
• Participate in beach cleanups to remove hazardous debris, or bring your own trash bag to fill up when you go to the beach.
• Reduce your plastic use.
• Be responsible for your fishing gear—don’t let it float away. Clean up all of your fishing lines and nets.
• Don’t buy balloons.
• Volunteer at a marine mammal center!
• Spread the word.

True Cost of Chevron - 5/25

True Cost of Chevron, a set by TonyaHennessey on Flickr.

The Sea Turtle Restoration Project and friends joined up with others to protest at Chevron's shareholder meeting. Chevron is avoiding responsibility for the destruction it has caused to ecosystems and communities everywhere.

Green Sea Turtles!

Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) are the species you commonly see in Hawai'i. They were listed under the Endangered Species Act on July 28, 1978. The populations along Mexico's Pacific coast and in Florida are listed as endangered, along with populations in the Mediterranean; everywhere else the remain threatened.

Photo Cred. Sean McKenna

Appearance: Range from blackish to gray, to green, to brown in color depending on locational breeding populations. Greens tend to have unique identifiable markings. Yellow-white underside ("plasteron"). On average they weigh around 250 lbs and can grow to between 3 and 5 feet long.

Locations: Greens are the most widespread of all sea turtles with crucial breeding grounds in the Caribbean, North America, Central America, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Mediterranean. Also Hawai'i and other Indo-Pacific island areas. Basically they're everywhere. A cute little population of greens has been established in the San Diego Bay, attracted to the warm water from the Duke Energy power plant.

Reproduction: A significant factor behind their depleting numbers is that they don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re between 20-50 years old. Thousands of sea turtles are killed by pollution, boat strikes, or other reasons before they’ve had a chance to mate and lay eggs. Even if females do reach sexual maturity, they only lay eggs every two to four years.

Food: Adults are primarily vegetarian, eating mostly seagrass and algae. Occasionally they'll eat a jellyfish or two (See video). Baby greens are omnivorous and eat sponges, mollusks, and jellyfish. 

Threats: Poaching, drowning in fishing equipment, destruction of nesting beaches, and ocean pollution.

***Fun Fact: Contrary to popular belief, the green sea turtle was not named for the color of its shell, but because it has green fatty tissue under its shell.

The Shark-Free Marina Initiative

Their motto is, "Reducing worldwide shark mortality, one marina at a time."

Here are the basics: A shark-free marina does not allow shark to be killed and landed at their facility. Through the Shark-Free Marina Initiative, businesses are able to register as shark-free and mandate that no caught shark is allowed on their docks. In some states, fishing for shark is still legal ( so the initiative also allows businesses to register as shark-friendly. A shark-friendly business asks fishermen to release caught shark, and strongly discourages international shark fishing.

Why do people kill sharks?

Shark fin soup is a traditional Chinese dish served at weddings, symbolizing wealth, power, and honor. An estimated 70 million sharks were caught and traded last year. Due to its cultural importance, the demand for shark fin soup still remains despite having significant impacts on diminishing shark populations. Hawai'i was the first state in the U.S. to ban shark fin soup, and now the Oregon House just passed a bill to ban it. Hopefully other states will follow suit?

In addition to soup shark is prepared in other ways, but soup is the main problem because fishermen will catch a shark, chop off its fins, and throw it back out to the ocean to bleed and die.

Personally, the thought of eating it makes me gag.

© Fiona Ayerst/Marine Photobank

Sharks are also being thoughtlessly murdered as bycatch in fisheries. The target species may be tuna or swordfish, but fishing methods are not species specific. Therefore sharks, dolphins, whales, seals, sea turtles, and marine birds are all caught unintentionally.

What will happen if all the sharks are gone?

Total ecosystem collapse. Sharks are a keystone species, and regulate populations of other marine animals such as stingrays and various fish. If the populations of these prey organisms grow out of control, the ecosystem becomes imbalanced. 

I will attempt to explain:

No sharks/top predators --> More prey --> Prey animals eat more smaller animals (like crab/shrimp/scallops/smaller fish) --> Prey populations explode --> Prey populations eat ALL of the smaller animals --> No more shrimp or scallops for anyone (including humans) --> prey populations die --> this trend continues down the food chain until ecosystem reaches zero productivity.

I hope that made sense. Long story short, sharks and other top-predators like tuna and carnivorous whales are incredibly important to oceans worldwide. 

People are beginning to learn that sharks really aren't as dangerous as the Hollywood movies portray them to be. They're actually more dangerous to you if you eat them: shark is known to have high levels of mercury and toxins due to biomagnification. 

Watch the PSA:

Click here for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Sharks.

How can you help?
You can do your part to keep sharks on this planet by choosing smart, sustainably caught seafood. Avoid tuna or swordfish unless they were caught with a pole by a local fisherman. Ideally you want to stay away from any fish caught using gillnets, and avoid eating shrimp caught with shrimp trawls!
Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch

Dolphin Washed Up Dead — Gulfport, MS

Still more and more dead animals are washing up on Gulf of Mexico beaches. This dolphin, covered in orange spray paint, was found in Gulfport, Mississippi on May 15th by a local woman. The carcass had been tagged on May 13th by the Institute for Marine Mammal Research (the orange spray paint on the carcass says "IMMR"). The IMMR apparently just left it there to be cleaned up later, decomposing in the hot sun.

Laurel Lockamy, the Gulfport resident, returned the previous day just as a yellow bulldozer arrived to scoop off the dead dolphin and carry it away. The bulldozer carried it away down the beach, and dumped it behind some beach vegetation. So now it is still decomposing in the hot sun, but now it's behind some bushes.

© Laurel Lockamy - Gulfport, MS

These are beaches where families take their kids to play. Dead animals keep washing up... is this safe? Why aren't parents worried about their kids playing next to dead, decaying sea turtles, dolphins, and birds on the beach? The strandings of dead animals have become so frequent in the Gulf now that locals have begun bringing their cameras with them to the beach and documenting the strandings themselves.

“All these dead things on the beach. It never used to be like this before. I’m almost afraid to walk on the beach anymore," said Laurel.

Read the article about this dolphin stranding.

How Most People View the Ocean

There's really so much out there that we don't know and understand. So let's not just ignore it.

Photo from xkcd.

Bill Nye's Climate Lab!

Find the website here.

Bill Nye the Science Guy has been a hero of mine for as long as I can remember seeing his shows on TV and in grade school classrooms. He's now got this cool new website "Bill's Climate Lab" to show how everyone can make a difference in the fight against global climate change. It's really neat!

At first I thought it would be lots of "kids stuff" I already knew, but it actually has some pretty solid science and I realized it is actually more focused for adults more than kids.
Bill Nye is the coolest, ever!

It's Now Sea Turtle Nesting Season in the Gulf!

Latest reports from sea turtle biologist Donna Shaver of Padre Island National Seashore indicate that 78 Kemp's ridleys have already nested along the Texas coast! Want to see exactly where they've been nesting? Click here for a map!
In addition, the Atlantic green turtles are nesting in Tortuguero, Costa Rica; the loggerhead turtles are nesting on the West Florida coast; leatherbacks have arrived to nest on Eastern Florida beaches as well as Southern Georgia. There's a lot going on everywhere!

But now that the sea turtles are nesting and the little hatchlings will emerge soon, there is much to be done to ensure that the babies make it out to the sea. Here's a quick little list of just some ways to help out:

• Owners of beachfront property must turn out any porch lights after sunset, and use blackout curtains to keep light from getting out of their homes and shining out towards the beaches. Light bothers nesting sea turtles (except for red light). Plus, little hatchlings use light reflection off of the waves from the moon and stars to guide themselves toward the water. If they instead follow city lights inland, you will have lots of dead baby sea turtles all over city streets and parking lots in the morning.
• Again, if you own beachfront property, make sure you clear the beach of any umbrellas, chairs, or other obstacles that may block a sea turtle mother from nesting on the beach.
• And also, lock up your garbage because loose garbage = raccoons = animals that will eat baby sea turtles.
• Clean up beach litter to prevent sea turtles from becoming entangled, or to prevent them from eating it. Ingestion of plastic causes intestinal blockages, malnourishment, and may eventually lead to death.
• Support sea turtle conservation projects! Join a volunteer night patrol.

It's exciting news to hear about nesting sea turtles, especially with the abnormally high numbers of stranded turtles popping up everywhere in the Gulf of Mexico. This year so far we've already seen the sea turtle death toll reach way higher than the normal average (around 150 reported). Most of the time though, accidental catches of sea turtles by fishermen are not even recorded, and the dead sea turtle is thrown overboard to sink and decay at the bottom of the ocean. Scientists estimate that the real number of marine mammals harmed in the BP spill may be up to 50 times higher than what we can observe.

The high number of sea turtle deaths may not even be because of the oil spill—it is most likely because of shrimp trawling. The data all points to shrimp trawling as the top killer of sea turtles in the United States. 

Daily Inspiration

'Today, in the cutest voice, my 8-year-old daughter asked me to start recycling.  I chuckled and asked, “Why?” She replied, “So you can help me save the planet.”  I chuckled again and asked, “And why do you want to save the planet?”  “Because that’s where I keep all my stuff,” she said.  Makes Me Think'

"The ocean has always been a salve to my soul...the best thing for a cut or abrasion was to go swimming in salt water. Later down the road of life, I made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land."  - Jimmy Buffett

Human Overpopulation

Wear a condom now... save the spotted owl.

The Center for Biological Diversity was handing these out at ISTS in April. They're condom packages that feature various endangered species and provide information about humankind's overpopulation of Earth and the trouble it has caused for various endangered species. 

Humans are the most populous mammals on this planet, and we consume most of the natural resources available. We cut down trees that may have once been shelter for a tree frog, bird, beetle, monkey, or some other animal. We pollute bodies of water, home to dozens of species of fish, frogs, etc. We develop coastal areas for our own living, and destroy the nesting areas for sea turtles and the habitats of hundreds of other species. You get the picture.

As more and more of us populate the Earth, we are running out of resources for even ourselves. (See post on Earth Overshoot Day) So if you and your significant other are planning on having a hundred kids, please think again. Don't have more than two (to replace you two). Even better, adopt.

Find more at http://www.endangeredspeciescondoms.com/

STRP Google Oceans Posts!

This is what I've been working on for the past few months, and finally my posts are up on Google Oceans! There are three up so far: One about Australian flatbacks, one about Ostional's sustainable practices, and one about Kemp's ridleys nesting at Padre Island National Seashore. Check them out!