Recently, a sudden garbage wave observed in Cox's Bazar sea beach along the Bay of Bengal coast. During the disaster, the weather was rough. At the same time above 150 sea turtles found dead, almost dead, and too weak to move condition. I observed about 70% of the turtles were without one flipper that lost somehow. No other species get affected except the sea turtle. The garbage seems to be a few years old into the seafloor (look at the net in the picture). I think a small methane gas explosion happened under the sea which brings up the garbage on the sea surface. The patch may be a habitat for flipper lost turtle as they are not a good swimmer. In picture 1, the turtle carrying plastic in its mouth. However, I am not an expert.
What could be the reason behind accumulated garbage bring on to the sea surface from the seafloor?
Who will be affected? I mean marine life.
Is there any specific reason behind the death of only the sea turtle particularly sea turtle without flipper?
I cannot say for certain what has happened here, but sea turtles sometimes lose flippers if a flipper becomes tightly entangled in old fishing nets or ropes. A turtle trapped in a net will struggle and this can sometimes result in part of the net becoming wound around a flipper and eventually cutting into the tissue. Given that the photo shows at least one dead turtle tangled in a net, it seems plausible that old nets caused much of the damage to the turtles. There are other possibilities. For example, sharks can also sometimes bite off part or all of a flipper ... but it seems unlikely that a large number of turtles injured by sharks would be found in a small area. The fishing nets seem more likely to me.
I am just speculating ... but perhaps the rough weather (or the undersea explosion you mentioned) either concentrated old fishing nets in the area or brought nets that were submerged on the bottom up to the surface, where turtles became entangled. Regardless of how it happened, it is tragic and I hope you are able to determine the cause.
Kenneth Lohmann
Dear Professor
Thanks for the clarification. I have many photos taken on that coupe of days. If you would like to see I can share both photos and a PPT. I guess it's from the methane gas explosion which only affected turtles weak in swimming.
Kenneth Lohmann
Dear Professor
Thanks for the clarification. I have many photos taken on that coupe of days. If you would like to see I can share both photos and a PPT. I guess it's from the methane gas explosion which only affected turtles weak in swimming.
Wow, that is very tragic. I agree it looks like fishing line in its mouth and that a net or rope caused the amputation. I have seen loss of a whole flipper by discarded fishnet before on leatherbacks from Ghana where the is lot of Ghost nets and it looked similar. Or, at least, that is my best guess on what caused it.
Muhammad,
Thanks for your latest information. I don't think I'll be able to add much to my earlier response, but if you would like to share the photos and PPT with an audience of sea turtle experts and veterinarians, then you can consider joining the public listserv CTURTLE. You can google "CTURTLE" to learn how to join. It is free and you can sign up and also leave the group whenever you wish. If you share some of your photos there and explain what you've described here on ResearchGate, you will probably get some opinions from veterinarians who specialize in treating injured sea turtles. It might be interesting to see if they have additional thoughts on what might have happened. Anyway, it is something that you can consider if you are interested in learning more. Thanks for sharing what you observed and good luck.
Dear Leyna Stemle
Many thanks for your reply. Yes, the injuries might be from monofilament gill nets. The fisherman vs sea turtle conflict is true. Fishers use a sharp knife to cut the flipper to save the catch and net. Sometimes, the turtle could be able to release itself but the net attached to the flipper causes spoilage and finally loss the flipper. Here is the picture of the flippers with a deep ulcer.
Thank you for the picture Muhammad, the Ghost net and other net issues are very important. Here is a leatherback in Ghana that I think had its back flipper removed from some interaction with a net?
We cannot treat the seas and oceans as garbage tips. Out of sight and out of mind is not and environmentally sustainable strategy. It is a nightmare which is devastating to biodiversity and human and environmental health.
Leyna Stemle Very sad to see this. USAID's ECOFISH-II project has been started awareness training among marine fishing boat skippers in Bangladesh. Fishers reported sometimes sea turtles entangle in nets in a way that is hard to escape or save except cutting the flipper and/or chest. It's true some turtles lose their flipper in ghost nets or by shark attack.
Joseph Stroud You are right. We all have to be aware of and work together to protect the ecosystem and biodiversity.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Methodology
- Research Methodology
- Research Papers