Green Sea Turtles Still Struggling Years Later.

PositionDIE-OFFS

Environmental stressors, including heavy metals, brought on by human activity are harming coastal green sea turtle populations. In a study that appears in the journal Science of the Total Environment, a multidisciplinary group of researchers set about evaluating turtle health, water quality and other factors in the aftermath of a catastrophic mass death of green turtles in Australia.

"We found evidence of heavy metals--particularly cobalt--in sea turtle populations where we also saw signs of illness," says lead author Mark Flint. 'Though we can't be sure what caused this, there were cyclones and major flooding in this part of Australia two years prior to the start of our study and that could have drawn out sediment rich in heavy metals that had been lying in rivers and streams benign for the past 50 years."

Green turtles, Cheionia mydas, are an endangered species, and one of the largest sea turtles, weighing in at as much as 400 pounds in adulthood. These turtles are named for the greenish color of their fat, not their shells, and are found mainly in tropical and subtropical waters, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia, which provided funding for this research, and led the Rivers to Reef to Turtles project under which it was conducted.

Large populations live, feed, and nest on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, favoring the bays and protected...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT