May 15, 2002

The Daytona Beach News Journal
Florida researchers: Tar, plastic plague baby sea turtles

News-Journal wire services

PORT CANAVERAL -- Up to a third of the dead baby sea turtles collected off Brevard County beaches in the past decade had tar, plastic or both in their mouths or stomachs, according to a state biologist.

"We find about half have tar and almost 100 percent have plastic in their stomachs," said Blair Witherington of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Some of them have almost nothing but plastic."

The baby turtles are eating the tar and plastic within weeks of being born, when they journey 25 to 45 miles offshore to feed in the Gulf Stream.

The tar bogs down the turtles that survive eating it, eventually causing them to starve to death, Witherington said.

Possibly to blame are offshore vessels that spill fuel and garbage into the sea.

Analysis by researchers at University of South Florida showed the tar came from diesel fuel from ships. The tests showed it is weathered refined and crude oil like the type large freighters use.

"Most of it is from ship traffic," Witherington said. "It looks like the same stuff that squishes between your toes when you're at the beach."

Scientists have found plastic in sea turtles in recent years, but never to such a high degree of tar exposure in this region.

"The plastic wasn't a surprise. The oil was," said Anne Meylan, senior scientist for Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg.

The problem could be catastrophic for the endangered animals, Witherington says.

"These are just the ones we've found. Our guess is that the number of turtles that have died is actually in the thousands, possibly in the tens of thousands," he said. "We're pretty sure it's a large problem."

Since 1992, Witherington has found the tarred-up baby sea turtles, mostly loggerheads, in the Gulf Stream, a few dozen miles off of Port Canaveral and Sebastian Inlet.

The percentage of turtles he's examined with tar ingestion fluctuates from year to year -- from a high of 56 percent of the turtles he's examined in 1993 to a low of 4 percent in 1999. In 2000, about six percent of the loggerheads he found had tar caked in their mouths.

Witherington thinks his numbers are a small representation of a larger problem. "I'd hazard to guess that it happens all over the world," he said.