20 turtles found in oil flown to Florida, 6 arrive at Mote

SARASOTA — Twenty turtles rescued from oil in the Gulf of Mexico arrived in Florida this week. Twelve were sent to Sarasota and Clearwater holding facilities. Eight went to Tampa.

About 167 more turtles remain at New Orleans’ Audubon Nature Institute, where they have been cleaned, and are being nursed back to health, according to Meghan Calhoun, public relations manager for the institute.

The animals were flown to the Clearwater U.S. Coast Guard station Wednesday, then driven to facilities in Sarasota, Clearwater and Tampa. They were rescued between May 31 and June 9, Calhoun said.

Six were sent to Mote Marine Laboratory in order to provide more room at the New Orleans facility, which is the primary triage unit along the Gulf Coast, she said.

All the surviving sea turtles, which are an endangered species, eventually will be released into the wild, she said.

The area where the creatures were found floundering had been polluted by BP’s runaway Deepwater Horizon well, which leaked 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf before its flow was capped. It created the largest offshore spill in the Gulf’s history.

A “Sea Turtle Strike Team” from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries, with help from others, has been searching every day for animals trapped in oil, Calhoun said.

“NOAA has a helicopter that does aerial surveys,” she explained.

“They find where the sea grass line meets up with the oil, they feel like wildlife will be there.

“The majority of the turtles are found 30-40 miles off the Louisiana coast,” she said. “The oil is so thick out there, they don’t really see turtles, all they see is a hump in the oil, which may indicate a turtle shell. They dip their nets in the oil and water, and pull it up and hope they pull up a live turtle.”

Oil can burn the animals’ skin and eyes, and can cause difficulties when it is ingested, Calhoun said. It is also associated with dehydration, kidney failure and lung damage, Calhoun said.

As of Monday, 340 sea turtles had been collected alive, 279 visibly oiled; and 503 had been collected dead, 17 visibly oiled, according to the latest report posted at a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service website.

“These are turtles that were out at sea, feeding on the surface,” explained Andy Stamper, a veterinarian at Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory.

All the turtles at Mote are Kemp’s Ridley turtles, Stamper said. They rep- resent one of five turtle species in the Gulf, Calhoun said.

They will remain at Mote until federal and state officials decide the time is right to release them into the wild, Stamper said.

“We’re part of a group of rehabilitation facilities — we’re skilled in rehabilitation of animals — and we have facilities and expertise to care for them,” he said.

“They’re medically stable,” Stamper said. “But we will continue to monitor for any effects.”

Sara Kennedy, Herald reporter, can be reached at (941) 745-7031.

This story was originally published August 6, 2010 at 12:00 AM.