Australia: Sick turtles washing ashore

Samantha Turnbull and Bruce MacKenzie ABC News 26 Oct 12;

A turtle rehabilitation centre is struggling to keep up with the number of sick reptiles washing ashore

Sick turtles are appearing on north coast beaches earlier than expected.

The Australian Seabird Rescue rehabilitation centre at Ballina is already overflowing with 14 turtles - two more than it's designed to fit.

ASR spokesman Keith Williams says turtle strandings are usually more common in the middle of summer.

"This is a bit of a worry," he said.

"The summer load has arrived a bit early."

The stranded turtles are a mixture of the green and hawksbill species and Mr Williams says many will not survive.

"The unfortunate aspect of our work is that possibly half of these turtles will die in the first few days, they're just that sick when they strand on the beach," he said.

"If they're turning up on the beach they're already very sick.

"There's no records of turtles stranding on a beach for a sunbake.

"If they're on the beach for four to five hours they'll die from sunstroke and dehydration very quickly."

He said investigations into exactly what's causing the strandings would take place over the next few months.

"The most common thing we see is them having eating plastic, that's about one third to 40 per cent of the turtles we're seeing," Mr Williams said.

"Most of the rest have parasite infestations and that's probably indicating to us that they're not getting enough food so they're susceptible to other kinds of organisms."

Mystery surrounds turtle stranding
Bruce MacKenzie ABC News 26 Oct 12;

There's growing concern about a wave of turtles being stranded on far north coast beaches.

Keith Williams, from Australian Seabird Rescue, says 14 gravely ill turtles have been taken into care this week.

He says a similar phenomenon occurred last year, but it's not known what's causing it.

Mr Williams says both green and hawksbill turtles are washing ashore.

"The hawksbill turtles are a particularly endangered species that we're concerned about, and they represented a large number of the turtles that stranded last year," he said.

"So it's a worry that we're starting to see some more of them again.

"There's clearly something going on out there, and we're going to have to use some detective skills maybe to work out what it is.

"The most common thing we see certainly is them having eaten plastic, that's about one third to 40 per cent of the turtles that we're seeing.

"For most of the rest it's parasite infestation, and that's indicating to us that they're struggling in their diet.

"They're not getting enough food and so they're susceptible to other kinds of organisms."