Dead sea turtle puts EL scientist on alert
A DEAD loggerhead turtle, measuring 83.5cm, was collected from Kayser’s Beach yesterday by East London Museum principal scientist Kevin Cole.
Cole said the turtle was alive when it came ashore on Monday and moved high up the beach before “unfortunately” dying.
He thanked residents Terry and Norma Allen for keeping the turtle safe for collection by the museum.
“They [turtles] usually do this when they are sick. I want a necropsy to be done to determine whether plastic ingestion was the cause of death,” he said, adding that he was hoping to send it to Port Elizabeth for this.
Cole explained that turtles, like dolphins and whales, could be affected by seismic blasting, saying that the sooner a necropsy was done the more likely they’d be able to detect possible seismic damage.
“It had unusual barnacles on it which are not from our waters. I’d like to send barnacle samples to UCT or look at them here at the museum to try and determine where they are from,” said Cole.
Cole said the giveaway that this was a loggerhead and not a green turtle was that it had five scutes (plates making up its shell) on each side and two claws on its front flipper, whereas the green turtle has four scutes and one claw.
The Daily Dispatch reported on another loggerhead turtle, Toughey, which had washed up in Chinsta in December 2016. Cole revealed that the turtle had died of liver failure.
“Strange iron-like pigments were found in the liver which resulted in Toughey suffering from iron storage disease, usually a hereditary condition where the animal struggles to store iron properly.
“The vet said there was nothing the Bayworld turtle specialist, Ruth Wright, could have done to save it.
“Samples have been taken of the trailing edge of today’s turtle and will be used for DNA work at the Nelson Mandela University.
“The turtle will also be frozen for additional research purposes,” he said.