When the British Petroleum oil rig exploded in April of this year it unleashed a major environmental disaster. In the end, it is estimated that at least 206 million gallons of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico over the months of the well gushing oil. Wildlife suffered greatly from the massive spill, including sea turtles.
Sea turtles were especially threatened by the oil spill due to them all being either threatened or endangered and their nesting time being in the midst of the massive spill. Many sea turtles, including loggerheads, Kemp’s Ridley and green sea turtles, call the Gulf of Mexico home and come yearly to spawn. However, the spill threatened to kill all new hatchlings before other natural occurrences would, such as predation.
Due to this, an immense project took place to move sea turtle nests from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the safety of the Atlantic Ocean shoreline. In total, 278 nests of sea turtles eggs were moved with the utmost care to the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was below the expected amount, 700 nests, as biologists concluded some nests would be safe where they were for hatchlings.
In total, there was about 28,000 eggs from the sea turtle nests. Since the massive move, biologists have released about 15,000 hatchlings with more expected in the near future. The biologists are pleased with the result, as the rate of hatchling surviving to reach the sea is usually hovering below the fifty percent mark. Therefore, the move has at the very least given the turtles a greater likelihood of survival aside from the usual natural pressures.
The majority of the nests evacuated from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico were threatened loggerhead sea turtles. Some of the nests involved in the transport were Kemp’s Ridley and greens sea turtles, both of which are endangered. Despite the sea turtles being released into the Atlantic, biologists are hopeful that the hatchlings, if they survive, will still nest on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
