Ecoceànica: Turtle Autopsy

We recieved another call about a sick turtle two days ago. We visited her on the beach, some tourists had placed an umbrella over her and were pouring sea water over frequently. Rosanna seemed to think it has inhaled too much air and could no longer sink. Sometime I had no idea was possible and still now writing this I'm think maybe my translation wasn't perfect.
Anyway we placed the turtle in some more permanent shade and promised to come back the following morning to administer medicine and check it's progress.

Unfortunately when we returned the turtle had died during the night. Very sad for the turtle and tourists involved. However, this gave us the opportunity to perform an autopsy. The aim was to primarily determine the cause of death and then check for other bits of interest (i.e plastic in the stomach, other signs of illness). We performed the autopsy right on the beach under the somewhat horrified eyes of tourist however some were fascinated and Rosana quickly too the opportunity to teach onlookers on the biology of a turtle.


First task was the cut through the thick plastron on the underside of the turtle. Luckily a line round the edge can be used as a guide and after 5 minutes the whole plastron section was removed. This revealed a mass of muscle tissue attached each fin. There was a surprising amount of muscle especially on the front two flippers. Rossana cut the muclse out and threw it in a purposely dug hole along with the plastron. Under the muscle was a thin layer of membrane which seperates the muscle from the organs. Down the hole with the membrane unveiling a neatly arranged section of organs.


One by one they were removed and any relavant infortion recorded. The colours of some of the organs were very vivid greens or purples. The eusophgus was very interesting, turned inside out a tube of long spikes could be observed. Apparently turtles don't chew their food like a human would so it passed to the digestive system by rows of spikes with push the food down.


The blood inside the turtle was heavily coagulated and their was also so visible brushing on the plastron leaded us to believe that yet another turtle had falling foul of a boat in the harbour. After swimming with its injury the turtle gave up and retired to the beach where it then died. The turtle was a juville female, sad to see it go but a great opportunity to learn some hands on biology.

Ecoceànica: Los Organos

I've just finished picking out the maggots and changing the bandages for our patient in our house in Los Organos. We have been here almost a week and we have been very busy. One benefit of Los Organos is the fishing pier which juts about 500m into the sea halfway along the long stretch of the beach with makes up Los Organos Bay. Fish are processed here, with the scraps thrown into the sea. This has attracted the interest of turtles and fish which make us of the free and easy meal. In turn torists visit the fishing quay (3 soles) and have the opportunity to swim with the turtles. All well and good the town benefits from the extra tourism and the turtles get a free lunch. There's one major issue however that being a fishing quay it's also frequently visited by boats with seemingly little regard for the turtles. 

This bring us back to 'Jimmy', our patient in our makeshift turtle hospital in our house. Unfortunately Jimmy was hit by what we prosume to be the propeller of a boat which smashed a large hole in his head (see photos). The chairty was called and we rescued him from the fishing quay, unfortunately it seems the flies got to him first. The aim is administer medicine and try our best to keep him alive. After a dose of antibiotics and frequently injecting of saline solution plus daily or twice daily changing of his bandages, Jimmy is still with us after 5 days 🤞

Sadly, I don't think this is an isolated case and the mixuture of boats, turtles plus torists with swimming difficulties make a recipe in terms of the turtle safety. 

Will update on the progress of Jimmy as I go. We think it will take at least a month for any skin to cover the hole.

Ecoceànica Internship

I'm currently in northern Peru, close to the border of Ecuador, where the desert meets the sea. Long stretches of white sandy beaches backed by spectacular wild west style desert. I'm half way through a two month internship with marine conservation NGO Ecoceànica. 

The charity was established to offer some much needed monitoring, preservating and research to the extensive Peruvian coast while offering education to young and old. 

Over the past month we been engaging with a variety of projects. Most frequently is the registration of sharks and rays caught by local fishermen. For this we go to the somewhat chaotic beaches where the fishermen land their boats and plead with them to allow us to measure any sharks and rays they catch. Surprising they are often more than happy to allow us to take measurements and muscle samples of the fish. Rosanna, our main senior at the charity, said it has taken over three years to build a good relationship. One man (Marco) even gave me two fish for my lunch! However, it's very disappointing to see so many tiny (50-80cm) sharks, mostly hammerheads (Sphyrna zygaena) landed. Weirdly the locals don't consider the baby sharks to be sharks. Apparently only the large animals are considered sharks by people of Peru. Crazy, they even have a separate minimus catch size for sharks and tollo (baby shark). 

Another project we frequently help on is the logging of stranded turtles and sealions. There is a surprising amount wash up on the beaches. Over a 2 hour walk along the beach we would usually find at least two of each animal. Most of thm are in the late stages of decomposition but some a more fresh. We take size measurments to be logged in the database along with GPS information. 

Aside from that we have spent time conduction in water habitat assessments for hawksbills turtles which are pass through Peru but no one knows why. Also, going to schools to give talks to the kids and marine life (something I hope to do more of), IDing whale shark photos to be used for a comparison of databases and finally a fair measure of beach cleans (so much plastic!!). Soon we will move to Los Organos a town with many turtles. Learning more and more Spanish everyday but still a long way to go! 

https://www.ecoceanica.org/