Sea turtle’s death brings appeal for caution
Virgin Islands Daily News August 15, 2003 | NANCY COLE ST. CROIX – After St. Croix’s second reported sea turtle death in just more than a month, the National Park Service has issued renewed warnings to boaters, urging them to slow down and exercise increased caution especially during sea turtle nesting season.
Kimberly Woody, a biological science technician with the Park Service, said an adult female green sea turtle was found dead along the northeast shore of Protestant Cay, in Christiansted Harbor, by a Hotel on the Cay employee. this web site green sea turtle
“She is a known turtle,” Woody said, having been tagged initially in 1988 on Buck Island with metal flipper tags designating her as “PPW-823.” “She is one of our longtime nesters, one of the original ones actually. We started tagging in 1988,” Woody said. “It is a sad day for certain.” The turtle, whose shell measured more than 46 inches long and 41 inches wide, weighed an estimated 200 to 250 pounds.
“There is an impact on the back of her shell. It looks like it’s either a boat propeller cut or a boat hit. It’s definitely an impact with a little bit of a slice on one side,” Woody said. “I suspect she died immediately from it, but I don’t know that.” Because some algae was growing on the turtle’s exposed tissue, the accident probably occurred several days ago, she said.
On July 12, a dead green sea turtle was found on a beach just west of the Tamarind Reef Hotel and Green Cay Marina, on St. Croix’s northeast shore.
That turtle had a large impact wound on the upper part of its shell close to its head, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Claudia Lombard said the turtle appeared to have died as a result of a boat strike.
Three adult green sea turtles, two juvenile green sea turtles and at least one hawksbill sea turtle have been found dead so far this year around St. Croix, Woody said.
The turtle-nesting season at Buck Island peaks from early July through late October, she said, when seven to eight green sea turtles normally nest there.
“It’s a very active season for turtles and they do breathe air, so they pop up to the surface frequently to breathe,” Woody said, “and that’s when boats could actually harm them.” When “PPW-823” nested at Buck Island in 1988, Woody said, she would have been at least 15 and possibly as old as 35. So, she was at least 30 to 50 years old when she died. greenseaturtlenow.com green sea turtle
“The age to sexual maturity is still somewhat debated,” Woody said, as is the life expectancy of green sea turtles. “They are long- lived and late-maturing reptiles.” “PPW-823” was somewhat unusual, she said, because the turtle nested at Buck Island during 11 of the past 16 years. Sea turtles usually nest only once every two or three years.
Woody plans to do an autopsy on the turtle and expects to find eggs in her ovaduct.
All sea turtles are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the three species that commonly nest in the Virgin Islands are protected under the V.I. Indigenous and Endangered Species Act of 1990. Those V.I. species are:
– Green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas, a “threatened” resident;
– Hawksbill sea turtle, Eretmo-chelys imbricata, an “endangered” resident;
– Leatherback sea turtle, Dermo-chelys coriacea, an “endangered” migrant.
Woody said a fourth sea turtle species, a loggerhead sea turtle or Caretta caretta, was discovered nesting this year on Buck Island, the first such occurrence since monitoring began there 16 years ago.
“We think it’s kind of big news and we’re pretty excited,” she said, because loggerheads – the world’s most abundant type of sea turtle – normally nest in Florida and the Carolinas.
Bob Hoffman, a fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in St. Petersburg, Fla., said humans have been responsible for many sea turtle deaths during the years. Nowadays, the most common cause of turtle mortality are shrimp trawls, which trap them as “bycatch” – unwanted creatures accidentally hauled aboard fishing vessels. Bycatch totals at least 30 million tons of sea life each year.
Entanglement in gill nets, longlines, fish-pot lines and other types of fishing gear are the No. 2 cause of human-induced turtle mortality, Hoffman said, and boat strikes rank third.
“There are so many more boaters out there than there used to be and, with an increase in fishing regulations to protect turtles, there are starting to be more turtles out there. So, more turtles and more boats means you’ve got to be that much more careful,” he said.
Marine turtles once were so common in the Caribbean that they were an important food source for island inhabitants. Columbus recorded in his journals that his ships encountered turtles in such numbers that he and his sailors thought they had run aground on shoals when, in fact, turtles were bouncing off the hulls of the ships.
Officials request that the public report any known cases of dead or stranded sea turtles to either the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 773-4554 or 690-9451 or the National Park Service at 773-1460.
NANCY COLE
