I am writing with sad and distressing news today from Guatemala. We are right in the middle of a mass Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) stranding event. Last Sunday (1st of May) we had 4 stranded olive ridleys wash up on the Pacific coast in the department of Santa Rosa. Then four days later we had a further 12 strandings (6 alive & 6 dead) in the same part of the coast.
Scott (Akazul) with stranded L.olivacea
All live turtles have been in a state of debilitation- epibiota (algae and barnacles) on the body, flippers and plastron indicating prolonged periods of floating at sea, emaciation (concave plastrons & no fat), and dehydration (sunken eyes etc). Those that have been necropsied have had enlarged livers, cachexia (body wasting) and emphysema in the lungs.
Mariachi at sea with a female L.olivacea
Several trips out to sea have been made to look for more sick turtles and on Tuesday 10th May 2 more sick females were brought in. Then on the 11th May on another trip 12 more were found, 6 of which have been brought in for treatment.
Jaime Perez (Protortugas) at sea looking for sick turtles
Our total so far is 30 turtles (a mixture of both males and females) and there are countless more still yet to be found out at sea.
Collecting debilitated turtles at sea
We have been working in conjunction with our friends Protortugas, experienced veterinarians from Guatemala City, attempting to rehabilitate the live strandings and necropsy and run tests on those that pass.
The cause of these strandings remains a mystery and we won’t know too much until samples are analysed. All we know at the moment is that this disease or illness is only affecting one species of turtle- Lepidochelys olivacea and this is coinciding with the time that these turtles are migrating back to their coastal breeding grounds. It seems that this may be a bacterial, viral or parasitic infection which will be difficult to detect without the analysis of samples.
Alice & Sarah (Akazul) assessing the new arrivals
For any of those out there who may be able to help with this investigation, please do get in touch via admin@akazul.org
Kind regards,
The team at Akazul
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