by Jen Goldberg
GhostNets Australia

Recently there has been a spike in the numbers of dead and sick turtles washing up on the North East Coast of Queensland. The numbers have been astounding with rehabilitation centres filled to capacity.

Jennie Gilbert who co-founded the Cairns Turtle Rehab Centre with Paul Barnes gives some insight to the problem – having treated 26 turtles in recent months compared to the approximately 10 for this time of the year they usually expect.

There are three rehabilitation centre’s where sick and injured turtles can be taken to in the far north coast of Queensland, but presently they are all full.

Jennie puts the reason down to a series of severe environmental conditions we have had over the last few years that started off with Cyclone Larry, followed by a severe wet dry season, the floods and then another cyclone, Yasi.

This last category-five cyclone wiped out many sea grass beds that were already fragile throughout the Great Barrier Reef, leaving green sea turtles and dugongs with little to eat.
 
From the air, the cause of the destruction is obvious. You can see huge plumes of sedimentation from the rivers that have covered the inshore ocean region far more than normal because of the heavy rains.

The sediment then blocks the sunlight resulting in the suffocation of the sea-grass causing the rhizomes - which are the breeding parts of the plant to be unable to generate from lack of sunlight.

This destruction of seagrass beds and algae has resulted in the green (turtles), and dugongs which rely on these food sources to starve to death.
 
There has been a 50-70% increase in turtle standings, as a consequence we are going to expect the numbers of stranded green turtles and dugongs to increase.  Experts say that this may continue for the next two or three years before the beds fully recover.
 
Rehabilitation centre’s are under a lot of pressure. In Townsville Reef HQ, and JCU which has put in eight emergency tanks, are both now full; two tanks have been put on Magnetic Island, and CTRC has put in five more tanks to cope with the increasing numbers. 

Presently with the donation of land at Fitzroy Island, CTRC is building a facility that will hold about 20 turtles. At the moment this means there is room to hold about 40 turtles in these centres.

This doesn’t sound like much but there is a turnover, a lot that have died, they come in overnight and die the next day.

So how do you know that a turtle is starving? Jennie explains.

When we do a necropsy (open up the dead bodies) we can see that they are starving. The other day I did a necropsy on a turtle and there was no food in its gut. I’ve never experienced this before and I autopsy between 20-30 turtles a year.

The main cause of death is usually impaction (blockage) of the gut caused by ingestion of marine debris, parasites or a brain infection.  This problem will increase with the green turtles if they cannot find food sources and they will become opportunistic feeders which will increase the chances of consuming foreign objects that resemble food.

This could then result in blockages of the gut causing them to float on the surface which in turn, makes them more, susceptible to other impacts such as boat strike, predation and dying a slow death. 

Experts say this will take a couple of years before the seagrass beds recover. This is a natural disaster, we have lost more turtles and dugongs than experienced in previous years.

What is needed is more resources for the rehabilitation facilities, money to purchase extra tanks, food, treatment and have necessary diagnostic facilities available.

In recognition of this natural disaster several indigenous east coast communities are looking at self imposed moratoriums on traditional hunting until turtle and dugong numbers recover. 

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