Lights on fishing nets save turtles and dolphins

DECEMBER 5, 2019

by University of Exeter

Placing lights on fishing nets reduces the chances of sea turtles and dolphins being caught by accident, new research shows.

LED lights along the top of floating gillnets cut accidental "bycatch" of sea turtles by more than 70 percent, and that of small cetaceans (including dolphins and porpoises) by more than 66 percent.

The study, by the University of Exeter and Peruvian conservation organisation ProDelphinus, looked at small-scale vessels departing from three Peruvian ports between 2015 and 2018, and found the lights didn't reduce the amount of fish caught from "target species" (ie what the fishers wanted to catch).

The findings support previous research which suggested LED lights reduce bycatch of seabirds in gillnets by about 85 percent.

Gillnets, which can be either anchored or move with the ocean currents, are designed to entangle or snare fish by the gills, and are the largest component of small-scale fisheries in many countries.

"Gillnet fisheries often have high bycatch rates of threatened marine species such as sea turtles, whales, dolphins and seabirds," said lead author Alessandra Bielli, who carried out analyses as part of her masters research at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"This could lead to declines in the populations of these non-target species—yet few solutions to reduce gillnet bycatch have been developed.

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Hundreds of sea turtle hatchlings steal the show in Florida during America’s birthday – via Herp Digest

by Michelle Marchante, Miami Herald

JULY 05, 2019

Go to https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article232321862.html 

to see video.

Hundreds of baby sea turtles were spotted making their way to the ocean during the prime hours of America’s birthday in Fernandina Beach in North Florida and it was all caught on camera.

Becky Finsness, who recorded the video, has lived in the area for 30 years and has never had a Fourth of July quite like this one.

“It was awesome to watch these little guys make their way to the ocean,” Finsness told the Miami Herald. “After seeing this I was like, ‘What fireworks?’”

She wasn’t the only one. In the video, beachgoers can be heard exclaiming their surprise, with some calling it a “miracle” and others cheering on the little babies as they quickly waddled to the water.

At one point, at least one of the turtles can be seen going the wrong way before changing course and heading to the sea.

While this unexpected show left those at the beach full of wonder, it is a dangerous time for the little critters.

Hatchlings normally wait until nighttime to begin their trek, in hopes of avoiding predators or overheating, but everything in their path is an obstacle — from footprints to driftwood, according to SEE Turtles, an independent nonprofit based in Beaverton, Oregon, whose goal is to protect the species through ecotourism.

Once the turtles enter the water, they begin a “swimming frenzy” to get away from the shore and its potential predators. Their whereabouts will be unknown for up to a decade, but experts estimate only 1 in 1,000 hatchlings will survive to adulthood.

If they make it to adulthood, some can live for up to 50 years or more, according to the World Wildlife Fund, the world’s conservation organization.

Sea Turtle Conservationists Fear Pesticides are Making Sea Turtles ill in Northern NSW (Australia) – via Herp Digest

 by Raffaella Ciccarelll, May 21, 2019

Sea turtles released as mystery pollutant causes animals to 'float'

                               

Returned to the open ocean, in an instant the green sea turtle was gone.

The release at Woolgoolga headland on NSW’s mid-North coast, was the second performed that day and went off without a hitch.

For the past four months, the animal had been confined to a tank at Dolphin Marine Conservation Park in Coffs Harbor, recovering from buoyancy issues caused by a build-up of internal gasses.

It's becoming more common in sea turtles found in northern NSW. 

“We can’t say exactly what is causing the buoyancy issues, that’s the great question,” vet Duan March, a director of the Sea Turtle Foundation, told nine.com.au.

“But sadly, the only way to treat ‘float’, is to wait it out.”

March believes the extensive use of pesticides in the agriculturally-rich region could be playing its part in making these turtles ill.

“Turtles have been around for hundreds of millions of years, so they are pretty good at adapting to the marine environment,” he said.

“If we are seeing sick turtles, it’s normally something that we’re doing; whether it’s anthropogenic runoff, or marine debris or just a boat strike.”

In 2017, researchers found heart and gout medication, along with herbicides and other industrial chemicals in the blood stream of green sea turtles on the Great Barrier Reef.

“Living as they do in coastal bays, green turtles are directly impacted by human activity. What we put down our sinks, the chemicals we use on land and what’s washed off our roads ends up in the ocean, threatening the clean water that turtles need to survive,” researchers said in a statement.

If gasses do build up causing float, it usually means a death sentence for turtles in the wild. 

“When sea turtles are buoyant in the water, they can’t dive, and when they can’t dive they get washed around by waves. Eventually they get hit by a boat or are washed into rocks, ” March said. 

This is what happened to “Flip”. The green sea turtle was brought in with a fractured under-shell after being slammed against rocks.

Jeremy Brown, Co-Founder of Ocean Protect – a company who designs, install and maintain stormwater treatment infrastructure – believes that stormwater runoff is the biggest threat facing our oceans.

“Stormwater runoff can make any marine animal ill. It’s the largest source of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans,” he told nine.com.au.

“If you go just up the road to Moreton Bay, which is only four hours north of Coffs Harbour, 30 per cent of dead sea turtles have stomachs full of plastic. Globally, over 50 per cent of sea turtles have ingested plastic,” he said pointing to estimates made by University of Queensland researcher Dr Qamar Schuyler.

“But whilst plastic is part of the issue, so too are pollutants including sediments, heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorous and cigarette butts that, like plastic, flow to the ocean with stormwater runoff,” he said.

Both March and Brown said the impact of stormwater runoff and pesticides on sea turtle health was one that needed more study.

“Sea turtles are very stoic critters, it’s very hard to tell a healthy turtle from a sick turtle. Trying to reverse-engineer back and figure out the cause of the problem – that’s the real challenge,” March said. 

Asked if they were aware of any pollution around Coffs Harbour, a spokesperson for the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority told nine.com.au: “This issue has not been raised with the APVMA. The APVMA reviews registered chemical products when new, credible scientific evidence emerges that suggests that there may be changes in the risks to human, animal, or environmental health.”

Columbus Zoo & Aquarium Honors Sea Turtle Conservationist (Dr. Karen Eckert, the executive director of the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST) with $50K Grant – via Herp Digest

Powell, OH— On Saturday, May 11, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium will honor Dr. Karen Eckert, the executive director of the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST), with its biennial Commitment to Conservation Award. The honor includes a $50,000 grant, made possible with the generous support of award sponsors, Kim and Steve Germain and the Germain Motor Company. Dr. Eckert will be recognized at the Zoo’s 10th annual Wine for Wildlife event, presented by OhioHealth, which raises funds to support the Zoo’s international wildlife conservation grant program.

Dedicated to averting the extinction of six species of endangered sea turtles in the Caribbean basin, WIDECAST embraces the largest network of sea turtle research and conservation projects in the world. Volunteer Country Coordinators serve in more than 40 Caribbean nations and territories, and the network emphasizes science-based tools in national policy-making and community conservation initiatives. Eckert’s leadership of this unique international network constitutes an achievement unparalleled in marine biodiversity conservation as sea turtles face threats, including: the illegal harvest for their shells, meat and skin; getting caught in fishing nets as by-catch; eating or getting tangles in marine debris like plastics; and the loss of nesting beaches due to development rising sea levels.

Saving sea turtles requires the coordination of local communities, governments, scientists, and others, and Eckert’s sea turtle conservation contributions include a landmark series of “Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plans,” the first species-level recovery plans ever developed for many Caribbean nations, providing Caribbean governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with priority recommendations for the recovery of declining sea turtle populations. In addition to convincing governments and rural communities alike to become more involved in conservation, Eckert has guided this vast region in the design and implementation of international programs, including a centralized tag database, index population monitoring, sea turtle-based school curricula, harmonized legislation, alternative livelihood strategies, research on migratory pathways, and more. Eckert has also led the network in peer-training and the development of standardized best practices as a way for the tide to “raise all boats.” Her diverse portfolio of publications includes training modules and handbooks for responding to sea turtles in distress, surveying critical habitat, monitoring reproductive activity, guiding fishers to use less destructive gear, instructing beachfront hotels in protecting adjoining nesting habitats, and much more.

Eckert’s work is one of more than 80 projects in over 40 countries that are supported by funds raised through the Columbus Zoo. Since 1994, the Zoo has contributed over $170,000 to Eckert’s work. She was selected to receive the Commitment to Conservation Award by exemplifying how collaborations between field researchers and zoos can help save wildlife.

“Dr. Eckert is a brilliant scientist, as well as a warm, charismatic, and natural leader who has an incredible capacity for getting people excited about a common goal, and her passion for sea turtle conservation is unrivaled, both in results and its scope,” said Doug Warmolts, Vice President of Animal Care at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. “Not only does Dr. Eckert apply the Columbus Zoo’s support to her field work but the information she gains and shares with us is used to help inspire and educate millions of our guests with ways they, too, can be directly involved in sea turtle conservation.”

When Eckert accepted the position of executive director of the fledgling WIDECAST in late 1989, few thought such a network possible. Today, this innovative program is a model for multilateral marine resource management in the Caribbean Sea and throughout the world. Grassroots organizations have been formed in more than 20 nations; remarkably, 70% of Caribbean governments now protect sea turtles, and Eckert has inspired thousands of people, mostly in poor countries, to actively create a more sustainable future. As a direct result of her efforts, the Caribbean Sea is today the only regional sea in the world where selected populations of all native sea turtle species are seen to be rising.

“Dr. Eckert recognizes that with the number of threats that wildlife species face, effective conservation has to address a number of complexities,” said Tom Stalf, President and CEO of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. “The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is proud to be a long-term supporter of Dr. Eckert’s work as her commitment, resolve, and vision continues to inspire individuals, communities, and governments to come together to make a positive impact for sea turtles and their future.”

In 1994, her early achievements also earned her an induction into the “Global 500 Roll of Honor for Environmental Achievement” by the United Nations, when UNEP characterized her as “one of the most important figures in conservation and grassroots community empowerment in the field of endangered species in the Wider Caribbean Region.” In 1996, she was among the first cohort of Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation, a prestigious three-year fellowship that specifically recognized her efforts to restore depleted sea turtle populations and promote sustainable coexistence between Caribbean people and their marine resources. Additionally, she received the 2003 Chevron Texaco Conservation Award for “providing the world with a unique model that shows how people and marine life are not only able to coexist, but to flourish.”

Eckert will be the fourth recipient of the Zoo’s Commitment to Conservation Award. The Columbus Zoo established this award in 2011 to publicly recognize and reward the unsung heroes of global wildlife conservation and to honor the lifetime achievements and dedication of our field conservation partners. The previous recipients are: Claudine Andre, Lola Ya Bonobo founder, who established a sanctuary for bonobos in Kinshasa Province, Democratic Republic of Congo; Marc Ancrenaz, co-founder of the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Program (KOCP) based in Borneo, who works to raise awareness about the orangutan and the importance of protecting the species’ habitat; and Dr. Patrícia Medici, the founder of the Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative (LTCI; IPÊ – Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas, Institute for Ecological Research) in Brazil, who helped discover the vital role tapirs play in the ecosystems they inhabit.

Sea Turtles Return to Versova Beach After Lawyer’s Massive Cleanup Efforts – via Herp Digest

BY Cat Bolton 3/26/19 The Epoch Times

Just a few years ago, Mumbai’s Versova Beach practically doubled as a landfill.

The plastic garbage and filth was piled literally feet high; photographs were taken of people standing knee-deep in garbage, rendering the beach effectively useless for the turtles and other sea-dwelling creatures that use beaches—crucial parts of their habitat.

Indian lawyer and conservationist Afroz Shah knew that something had to be done about the condition of the beach, so he helped organize what the United Nations has called the “largest beach cleanup” ever.

For more than 100 weeks, Afroz Shah, has been clearing plastic waste from Versova Beach. While Mumbai had accepted this filthy beach as a part of the city life, one man decided that something had to be done. Two years later-Versova has transformed from the filthiest beach to the cleanest beach of Mumbai.

It took years, quite literally—but thanks to the tremendous efforts of volunteers to both clean up the beach and maintain its cleanliness, the baby Olive Ridley turtles that used to consider Versova Beach a crucial part of their migration to the Arabian Sea have finally returned.

The Olive Ridley sea turtle is both the smallest and most common of the world’s sea turtle species, but their population worldwide has shrunk by as much as 32 percent in the last generation alone. Between exploitation concerns and polluted migration paths, like how Versova Beach was for nearly three decades, the number of nesting females plummeted.

Knowing how crucial it was to provide them a safe habitat once again, Shah gathered hundreds of volunteers and went to work cleaning up a reported 11,684,500 pounds (approx. 5,300,000 kg) of trash over a grueling two-year period. The volunteers cleaned up both the beach and upstream rivers, ensuring that the pollution didn’t simply get swept right back again.

Then, they waited—and in the spring of 2018, the turtles came.

“Week 127,” Shah wrote. “Fantastic news for Mumbai. We got back Olive Ridley Sea Turtle after 20 years. Historic moment Nested and Hatched at our beach. We facilitate their journey to ocean. Constant cleaning helps marine species.”

In an interview with The Guardian, Shah explained that seeing the turtles return to their rightful migration path—something that was completely impossible with the previous levels of trash—brought tears to his eyes.

When the incredible experience occurred, the Indian news circuit was understandably skeptical. Despite the excitement displayed, they rigorously fact-checked to ensure that what they were seeing was truly a reversed trend in favor of nature conservation.

After finding the eggshells from the turtles, though—proving that they had, indeed, hatched at Versova Beach and hadn’t been brought in or hatched elsewhere as a PR stunt—the joy was expressed across India.

Shah was given tremendous accolades by the United Nations for his cleanup effort, winning the Earth Champs award for the cleanup:

Although Shah could have easily accepted the praise for a job well done and moved on, though, the young Mumbai-based lawyer has kept up his efforts to make sure that the trash doesn’t return and chase the turtles from their habitat once again. Now, he’s on to cleaning up the Mithi River, where they’ll add a dam to help control floodwaters during monsoon season as well—something that not only helps the environment, but the Mumbai population as well: India has long dealt with massive pollution concerns, facing challenges posed by both the nation’s exploding population and their developing country status.

Thanks to Shah, though, it’s not just the rivers and beaches that are being cleaned. Hes changing the attitudes in India, as well—which could lead to a more sustainable environment across the nation.

“@AfrozShah1u inspire,” one Twitter user wrote. “For years I saw this garbage as I used to run past it, I had to clean it, I did today.”

With that kind of change, India is taking incredible steps towards saving the planet!

Sea turtle populations OK after Kilauea eruption, report says – via Herp Digest

Provided by the Associated Press, published in the 1/22/19 issue of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser

The Kilauea volcano eruption did not critically damage sea turtle populations on the Big Island, according to a survey conducted by a Hawaii wildlife conservation group.

The Hawaii Wildlife Fund determined this month that lava did not harm turtle populations despite the persistence of unsubstantiated claims warning of turtle deaths during the eruption that began in May, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Sunday.

The wildlife organization conducted two helicopter flights above the lava-impacted coastline, observing 50 live turtles and other sea life. Turtle experts also were consulted for the survey, who agreed that sea turtles were likely able to escape lava en masse, said Kallie Barnes, the organization’s education coordinator.

Two endangered species of sea turtles frequent Big Island coastlines, the hawksbill sea turtle and the green sea turtle.

The turtles have largely abandoned the coastlines near the lava flows, likely because they had insufficient food in the new coastal lava rock, Barnes said.

While state and federal agencies have said that large numbers of sea turtles were not endangered by lava flowing into the ocean during the eruption, confusion followed those reports, prompting the organization to conduct its own, Barnes said.

“There were all kinds of reports that (turtles) were trapped or stranded, driven by social media,” Barnes said.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources did not observe any turtles in distress during the eruption, said A.J. McWhorter, communications specialist for the department.

“We concur with the Hawaii Wildlife Fund’s findings that the majority of turtles vacated the area when the lava started entering the ocean,” McWhorter said. “Of course, we are saddened by any loss of any creature that we help protect.”

Marine mammals and sea turtles recovering after Endangered Species Act protection

Date:  January 16, 2019

Source:  PLOS

More than three-quarters of marine mammal and sea turtle populations have significantly increased after listing of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to a study published January 16 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Abel Valdivia of the Center for Biological Diversity in California, and colleagues. The findings suggest that conservation measures such as tailored species management and fishery regulations, in addition to other national and international measures, appear to have been largely successful in promoting species recovery, leading to the delisting of some species and to increases in most populations.

The ESA is a powerful environmental law protecting imperiled plants and animals, and a growing number of marine species have been protected under this law as extinction risk in the oceans has increased. Yet analyses of recovery trends for marine mammals and sea turtles after listing are lacking. To address this gap in knowledge, Valdivia and colleagues gathered the best available annual abundance estimates for populations of all 62 marine mammal species and sea turtle species listed under the ESA. The researchers analyzed population trends, the magnitude of population change, and recovery status for 23 representative populations of 14 marine mammal species and eight representative populations of five sea turtle species.

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Endangered Species Act Is Working for Sea Turtles and Marine Mammals – via Herp Digest

New assessment shows landmark legislation helping dozens of species survive

by Jason Daley, 1/19/19, Sierra Magazine

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 is one of the legal cornerstones of conservation in the United States, and when it works the results can be spectacular. Bald eagles and peregrine falcons have returned to the skies, wolves and grizzly bears prowl around Yellowstone, and humpback whales ply oceans on both coasts. But deciding whether the ESA is doing its job for other species is much more difficult. There are fewer scientists keeping tabs, less data, and less money. That’s why researchers from the Center for Biodiversity looked into the recoveries of marine mammals and sea turtles listed on the ESA: 78 percent of the populations they investigated saw significant increases after listing, indicating that the law is doing its job.

For the study in the journal PLOS One, the researchers looked at the best available data for 14 marine mammal species like killer whales, fin whales, sea otters, monk seals, and sea lions, and five sea turtle species that call US waters home. Because the ESA divides species into distinct populations that it manages individually, the team analyzed 23 populations of mammals and eight populations of turtles, finding that 18 of the mammal groups were on the rise and six of the turtle populations had seen significant gains. Three mammal populations saw no gains and two saw declines, while two populations of turtles showed no increase (though no groups of turtles declined after being placed on the endangered-species list).

Some of the recoveries are striking. Hawaiian humpback whales, for instance, climbed from just 800 animals in 1979 to 10,000 in 2005, which led to a delisting. The eastern Steller sea lion population along the Pacific coast rose from 19,000 in 1990 to almost 60,000 in 2013. And sea otters doubled their numbers to almost 2,700 individuals between 1979 and 2017.

Lead author Abel Valdivia, formerly of the Center for Biological Diversity and now a senior manager at the conservation group RARE, says the study shows that turtles and marine mammals have the capacity to recover as long as the right protections are implemented in a timely manner. “We had a sense that there were a lot of populations doing good or on the path of recovery,” Valdivia says. “But no one had done the analysis.”

While the study is good news, Valdivia says there’s no conservation silver bullet that stands out in the data. Each species had an individualized recovery plan and had critical habitat declared, each getting different interventions, whether that was protecting turtle nesting grounds or keeping boats and ships a certain distance from whales. The only commonality was time. The longer the species was on the list, the more pronounced their population recovery was.

The two mammal species in decline, Valdivia says, did seem to share one problem. The population of southern resident killer whales in Puget Sound and the population of Hawaiian monk seals in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands both face challenges associated with feeding. For the seals, changes in the ocean likely associated with climate change have shifted their feeding grounds away from their traditional strongholds. The whales similarly are affected by diminishing stocks of Chinook salmon in Puget Sound as well as increases in pollution and boat traffic.

It wasn’t the team’s intention to just study whales, turtles, and high-profile, charismatic creatures. Valdivia says they initially wanted to look at all marine creatures in US waters protected by the ESA. But that was problematic. The team found that there was little data on most marine species. Many fish species have been listed as endangered in just the last decade, and recovery plans and critical habitat have yet to be implemented for them. Even well-known species, like populations of polar bears in Alaska, didn’t have enough data to create meaningful population profiles. Once those species are analyzed, the picture may not be so positive. But the team hopes to one day analyze more of the 62 marine mammals and turtles found in US waters. “For the other marine mammals and sea turtles we didn’t analyze, it’s just a matter of waiting for more data and more time for the ESA rules to get in place,” says Valdivia. 

However, if some politicians get their way, many species will never have recovery plans put in place or get the time needed to recover. The Trump administration has yet to confirm a director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which implements many ESA plans, but interim directors have included noted ESA foe Susan Combs. The current nominee, Aurelia Skipwith, who has worked for agribusiness giant Monsanto, is also feared to be an opponent of the ESA. 

Under former interior secretary Ryan Zinke, the FWS put forth proposed new rules that would overhaul the Endangered Species Act administratively, including allowing local economic impacts into listing decisions and changing the 4(d) rule, which automatically grants the same blanket protections to animals listed as “threatened” as those listed as “endangered.” Instead, the change would require that each threatened species would receive an individualized protection plan—one that would take a lot of time to develop and could be challenged in the courts. A flurry of Republican-sponsored bills in the House last year also aimed to reduce or redefine the ESA—though, with the Democrats now in charge of the chamber, those bills are likely dead. If the rule changes for the FWS are approved, it’s also likely they will lead to protracted legal battles with unknown outcomes. 

Whatever the future holds for the ESA, Valdivia says this study, at least, shows its implementation is not in vain. “I think the main point we’re trying to make is that this is a positive news story in a background of really bad news about overfishing, pollution, and climate change,” he says. “I think it’s good to see the silver lining in marine conservation.”

Microplastics found in all sea turtle species

December 4, 2018, University of Exeter

Tests on more than 100 sea turtles—spanning three oceans and all seven species—have revealed microplastics in the guts of every single turtle.

Researchers from the University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, working with the Greenpeace Research Laboratories, looked for synthetic particles (less than 5mm in length) including microplastics in 102 sea turtles in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean.

Synthetic particles were found in all of the turtles, the most common being fibres, which can potentially come from sources including clothing, tyres, cigarette filters and maritime equipment such as ropes and fishing nets.

"The effect of these particles on turtles is unknown," said lead author Dr. Emily Duncan, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"Their small size means they can pass through the gut without causing a blockage, as is frequently reported with larger plastic fragments.

"However, future work should focus on whether microplastics may be affecting aquatic organisms more subtly.

"For example, they may possibly carry contaminants, bacteria or viruses, or they may affect the turtle at a cellular or subcellular level. This requires further investigation."

In total, more than 800 synthetic particles were found in the 102 turtles studied.

But researchers only tested part of each animal's gut—so the total number of particles is estimated to be about 20 times higher.

Researchers do not currently understand how synthetic particles are ingested by turtles, but the likely sources are polluted seawater and sediments, and eating via prey or plants.

Professor Brendan Godley, senior author of the study, added: "It really is a great shame that many or even all of the world's sea turtles have now ingested microplastics.

Read more at: 

What I learned by pulling a straw out of a sea turtle and video tapped it - via Herp Digest

Then when my video went viral, I found that communicating to non-scientists is uncomfortable — and effective 

by Christine Figgener, Nature 563, 157 (2018)

Three years ago, I uploaded a video of a sea turtle in distress. While collecting data for my PhD off the coast of Costa Rica, my team decided to remove what looked to be a barnacle encrusted in the nostril of the turtle, which we had captured for a research study. The object turned out to be a 10-centimetre section of a disposable plastic drinking straw. We filmed the process. That upsetting video (see go.nature.com/2qfci6f) has now had more than 33 million views, and became an emblem of the anti-straw movement.

It also thrust me into a world of high-profile advocacy I never expected to enter. I became involved in a documentary project, and community activists who were launching plastic-free campaigns asked for my support; I’ve gone to schools, conferences and screenings to talk about a subject that is not my main research focus. Last month, to my surprise, Time named me a 2018 Next Generation Leader, alongside celebrities such as Ariana Grande and Hasan Minhaj. All this has taught me that communicating beyond academia is worth trying, but it demands constant vigilance and caution.

I always have to remind non-scientists that my video is, of course, not the first documentation of how plastic harms marine wildlife. A legion of scientific articles does exactly that. But, for many, it takes videos such as mine to make these articles less abstract. I’d spent years making videos that I hoped would encourage conservation by showing the beauty of nature. They had little effect compared with my video of a bleeding turtle and a spontaneous anti-straw tirade.

Many scientists shy away from the press — or from uploading videos that show emotion, especially anger and frustration. We fear the simplification and inaccuracies likely to be introduced into accounts of our research, which could cause us to lose credibility with peers and funders. Yet, these routes might be the most effective way of getting information to policymakers and citizens, and so promoting conservation.

This year, companies including Alaska Airlines, Disney and Starbucks announced programmes to phase out plastic straws. Seattle, Washington, and San Francisco, California, among other cities, have moved to ban or limit them. Of course, straws are just a tiny fraction of the plastics in the ocean. (Roughly, they make up less than 0.03% of the more than 8 million tonnes of plastic waste, largely consumer trash and fishing nets, that makes its way to the ocean every year, mainly from middle-income countries.)

I take care to explain that the straw is emblematic of unnecessary plastic items and how human activity harms oceans. The message is getting through. Last week, the European Union moved to prohibit several single-use plastics, including plates and cutlery.

Activists need scientists’ input. When you’re trying to preserve species effectively and have limited funds, you need to know which life stages have the highest chance of survival and whether there is enough suitable habitat left for a species to even sustain larger numbers. Sometimes people are eager to undertake intense hands-on work (such as rescuing turtle eggs by digging them up and reburying them) even when less-dramatic efforts (such as establishing protected beach areas) would be sufficient and longer lasting.

Delivering compelling messages is difficult. I am used to obsessing over my data, not over how I look on camera. My research is dirty and smelly, full of long hours and unkempt hair. Conservation campaigns focus more on appearances, marketing and selling.

Thanks to my video, I have acquired a thicker skin and an eclectic set of skills ranging from copyright law, social-media marketing and unconventional ways of fundraising (I started a GoFundMe page for research). I learnt to ignore most rude and ignorant remarks: for instance, claims that I shoved the straw into the turtle’s nose for self-promotion. If I respond, I draft an unemotional e-mail debunking accusations point by point with established facts.

What rankles more is when people try to take advantage of me. As in academia, philanthropy and advocacy are full of big egos that sometimes care more about advancing themselves than a cause. They are also less likely to buy into an ideal of citing and crediting others. I have learnt to be careful about how others use my work.

It might seem to other early-career scientists that I won the lottery by publishing a gruesome video rather than hundreds of scientific articles, but I am not even sure whether my modicum of celebrity makes me more or less employable. My advocacy has taken time away from my research. I still need to finish my dissertation on the migration patterns of olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea). Yet I am scared that if I turn down speaking engagements or other chances to spread the message about plastics pollution, I’m letting down the creatures I’d hoped to help by studying them.

Although it might never feel entirely comfortable, I intend to keep straddling both academia and advocacy. After the straw-extraction video went viral, my colleague and I decided that we needed a conventionally citable publication, and so we wrote a piece that appeared in Marine Turtle Newsletter (N. J. Robinson and C. Figgener Mar. Turtle Newsl. 147, 5–6; 2015). That article exemplifies why doing outreach beyond academia is so important. Maybe a few hundred scientists read the peer-reviewed article, whereas millions of people saw the video. Which had the bigger impact?

After decades of rescuing stranded sea turtles, NOAA’s Galveston lab plans to scale back - via Herp Digest

Alyson Ward, Oct. 20, 2018, Houston Chronicle

Dr. Joe Flanagan, senior veterinarian at the Houston Zoo, examines a Kemp's ridley sea turtle that washed ashore on Galveston's west end Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. The zoo treats about a hundred stranded sea turtles every year.Photo: Houston Zoo

• The sea turtle was almost dead, stranded at the high tide line on a Galveston beach.

• It had a thick coating of algae growing on its outer shell. Its body was thin, its eyes sunken. It wasn’t moving.

• A beachgoer spotted the creature earlier this month and called a hotline for reporting stranded sea turtles. As soon as the phone rang, the NOAA Fisheries laboratory in Galveston sprang into action.

An employee collected the 40-pound turtle from the beach and brought it back to the lab. It was a Kemp’s ridley turtle — a critically endangered species — and it didn’t look good.

“It was basically one step away from being comatose,” said Ben Higgins, who manages the sea turtle program at the Galveston lab. “At one point, the staff came and got me and said, ‘We think it might be dead.’”

But it wasn’t dead. The NOAA staff put the turtle in a van and drove it to Houston. By the next morning, the turtle was sprawled out on an exam table at the Houston Zoo, letting senior veterinarian Dr. Joe Flanagan prod at it with purple-gloved fingers. The turtle got X-rays, blood work and a full physical exam.

The diagnosis: Dehydration and a touch of pneumonia.

“We got it just in time,” Higgins said. “It was very close to leaving us.”

But with some squid in its system and a prescription for antibiotics, the turtle was taken back to Galveston to recover in NOAA’s lab.

It’ll spend the winter in the lab, getting food and medicine and a heated tank. And if all goes well, it will be released back into the Gulf of Mexico sometime after the winter, when it can survive in the wild again.

The next turtles to wash ashore may not be so lucky, however. NOAA has announced plans to end its sea turtle rescue efforts on the Texas coast. That includes closing the facility’s turtle hospital, its turtle-rearing barn and its round-the-clock stranding response system.

The phasing out could happen within a few months, or it could take up to two years, conservation workers say. But when NOAA gets out of the sea turtle rescue business, a turtle with pneumonia on a Galveston beach won’t be a problem the agency can handle.

Changes on the way

The Texas coast sees five of the world’s seven types of sea turtles. And about a hundred times a year, sea turtles like this one get rescued by NOAA and cared for at the Houston Zoo.

They wash up on the upper Texas coast and get stranded, often with fishing hooks in their flesh or plastic bags in their digestive systems. Sometimes they’ve been injured by boats or caught in shrimp trawling nets, which hold them under the surface and fill their air-breathing lungs with water.

The NOAA lab collects them, one by one. One of four employees is on call at any hour of the day, standing by to answer the phone and pick up stranded turtles.

NOAA announced its intentions to Congress in July to end the rescues in an email to members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, calling the change a matter of “recent budget constraints.” The agency said it also has notified its partner organizations along the Texas coast — including Moody Gardens, Texas A&M University at Galveston and the Turtle Island Restoration Network — to talk about “transferring responsibility” of the sea turtle hospital and rescue system.

The idea is for one or several of those organizations to take over responsibilities for the region’s sea turtle rescue and hospitalization, said Dr. Christopher Marshall, a professor of marine biology at Texas A&M at Galveston.

“I think we’re all concerned about it,” Marshall said. “NOAA does have an obligation to stranded sea turtles, so we’re quite surprised that they’re doing this.”

Marshall has been part of discussions about how to fill the void when NOAA gets out of the sea turtle rescue business. He said that for now, there are more questions than answers.

“As they wind these things down, can the local community really help out with stranding, help out with rehab? Where is the sea turtle hospital going to be?” Marshall said. “And also, is NOAA going to help fund some of this, or not? These things do take funds, and nobody can really do it for free.”

As for the turtle rescues, Marshall said, “I think we’ll find a way, but it’s not a trivial task.”

Turtle populations endangered

Sea turtle rescue is considered crucial work because nearly all types of sea turtles are endangered. Some of them, like the Kemp’s ridley, are critically endangered.

On Texas beaches, signs and stickers urge people to call a hotline, 866-TURTLE5, if they see a stranded sea turtle. Right now, if the caller is on the upper Texas coast — between the Sabine and Brazos rivers — that call gets routed to the NOAA employee on call in Galveston.

That phone rings a couple of times every day, Higgins said — many more if there’s a mass stranding caused by cold stunning. That’s what happened last winter, when the Galveston lab took in hundreds of turtles after cold fronts blew through and made the bay’s shallow water suddenly colder.

“Once the temperature drops below 52 degrees, their bodies start to shut down,” Higgins said.

The turtles then land on the beach and the tide ebbs, stranding them — and they can freeze to death as temperatures drop.

Most of the serious threats to sea turtles are caused by human activity, Higgins said. Plastic bags and other trash are a constant problem because a balloon or a plastic bag floating underwater looks like food to a sea turtle. A 2015 University of Queensland study estimated that more than half of all sea turtles have ingested some form of plastic — and that plastic can block or injure the digestive system or create a buildup of gas that makes a turtle float, leaving it vulnerable to predators.

But the biggest threat to sea turtles, Higgins said, is commercial fishing — including the shrimping trawls that comb the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of sea turtles are injured or killed by shrimp trawlers every year, according to the ocean conservation group Oceana. When air-breathing turtles get caught in the trawls’ underwater nets, it’s usually deadly.

Government restrictions require many shrimp trawlers to use a “turtle excluder device,” a grid of metal bars that fits into the trawl net. While small creatures such as shrimp can pass through the grid, larger animals are blocked from getting caught in the net.

But turtles still get caught, Flanagan said. When he diagnosed the Kemp’s ridley turtle with pneumonia earlier this month, he said it’s possible the illness came from getting stuck in a net underwater.

‘Shifting their focus’

As NOAA phases out its sea turtle work in Galveston, it will also reduce its testing of turtle excluder devices.

• Every year, the lab brings 200 loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings from Florida to Galveston and rears them in captivity. When they are grown, the turtles help researchers test turtle excluder devices, developing more turtle-friendly nets for commercial fishing vessels.

• That work has made an impact, said Dr. Pamela Plotkin, who teaches oceanography at Texas A&M University in College Station and directs the Texas Sea Grant program. But Plotkin said NOAA’s plan to scale it back now makes sense to her.

• “Some people will read this and react, and they will only interpret this as ‘the federal government is reducing their commitment to sea turtles,’” Plotkin said. “I don’t see it that way at all. They are just shifting their focus to research.”

• Sea turtles are still endangered, she said, but the work of conservationists —including the NOAA lab — has created a new situation on the coast.

• “We’ve got more sea turtles in the Gulf and in Texas water than we’ve had in the past 70 years, and that’s a good thing,” Plotkin said. “The sea turtles are increasing, and we have different needs now.”

• The rescues are important work, Plotkin said, but she hopes — and expects — that other sea turtle conservation groups will step in and pick up the slack. “There are people up there, I think, that will fill the void that NOAA is going to leave.”

Turtle population rebounds

Flanagan, who came to the Houston Zoo in 1982, says he is treating more stranded turtles every year — but that’s good news, because it means there are more turtles in the water.

“When I started here, the expectation was the Kemp’s ridley would be extinct by the turn of the millennium,” he said. But today, “We’re seeing turtles in numbers that could not have been imagined 15 years ago.”

Even so, they remain critically endangered, said Emma Gilbert, curator of marine mammals at the Texas State Aquarium. The aquarium, farther down the coast in Corpus Christi, operates its own sea turtle rescue program.

“The population is so low that every single individual turtle matters,” Gilbert said. “Losing a facility that helps with rescue and conservation efforts means losing the capacity to care for an endangered species.”

Rescue programs like the NOAA operation, she said, are “critical” to keeping the sea turtle population on the rise. It’s uncertain whether NOAA’s partner organizations can seamlessly fill the holes after the agency scales back its turtle rescue efforts.

“It is difficult to tell what the future holds,” said Dr. Donna Shaver, state coordinator for the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network. “Hopefully we can find others that will be able to bridge this gap. But NOAA has been a valued partner for four decades, and their departure will have some impact, regardless.”