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The Gulf's Great Turtle Relocation Project

Posted by timothy on from the moving-quickly dept.

An anonymous reader writes "All along the Gulf Coast's beaches it's turtle-hatching season. Conservationists knew the poor hatchlings wouldn't have a chance if they swam out into the oily waters of the Gulf, so they came up with an incredibly ambitious plan: they would dig up 70,000 turtle eggs, carefully raise them in a climate-controlled hanger at the Kennedy Space Center, and release the hatchlings into the clean Atlantic waters off Florida's east coast. Now that project is well underway, and Discover Magazine has pictures of the first batch of hatchlings crawling toward the welcoming waves. But there's a chance all this do-gooding won't do any good. New Scientist found experts who argue that releasing them into the Atlantic rather than into the Gulf will screw up the turtles' navigation systems, which will prevent them from following their normal migratory routes."

14 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. It's spelled with an 'a', dammit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    carefully raise them in a climate-controlled hanger at the Kennedy Space Center

    That's hangar, not hanger. Like with separate, it's annoying how few people manage to get it right...

  2. Which beach? by The+Grim+Reefer2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So will the return to the beach they were released from? Or back to the ones in the gulf? I suspect this will make for some very interesting research in the future.

    1. Re:Which beach? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They will dutifully crawl out of the ocean and back into the KSC hangar in which they were raised. We'll subsequently hear about some rocket failing to achieve orbit when a clutch of turtle eggs mysteriously causes some malfunction.

  3. Look at the bright side by meerling · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe they'll end up establishing new populations in different locations.
    It's certainly better to give them the chance rather than simply let them be exterminated.

    I know, it's a complex situation with many variables that can't even be fully defined, much less accounted for. That's true, but we can only try to mitigate this disaster as best we can, or sit back and complain about those who are trying to fix it. Your choice.

    1. Re:Look at the bright side by copponex · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's true, but we can only try to mitigate this disaster as best we can, or sit back and complain about those who are trying to fix it. Your choice.

      This is slashdot. Brace yourself.

    2. Re:Look at the bright side by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Maybe they'll end up establishing new populations in different locations.
      It's certainly better to give them the chance rather than simply let them be exterminated.

      I think it's important to note that while 70,000 eggs seems like a lot, it comes from only 800 nests in two states. Turtles lay a lot of eggs, because most of them are not going to survive in any case.

      The point here is that they're hardly moving all the turtle hatchlings to the east coast, so if moving them is futile or even detrimental compared to leaving them in the Gulf, that'll be apparent in the outcome of the sea turtles that will hatch in the sands of the Gulf coast. On the other hand, if they have even a chance to survive in the Atlantic while the Gulf ends up being certain death for the turtles left there, then that's a huge win. The species occurs naturally on the Atlantic coast, so it's not like we're introducing a new species with potentially detrimental consequences.

      There's very little downside here, and the potential for a huge upside. The experts may be right that it is futile, but it is absolutely worth trying and I commend these folks for it.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    3. Re:Look at the bright side by sjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Consider it risk mitigation. There's some risk relocating them and there's more certain risk NOT relocating them. They're quite unlikely to relocate all of them. This maximizes the odds of some surviving.

  4. Sad by ceraphis · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is really sad, I always liked turtles. And frogs.

    We may soon see a rash of BP stations being razed with the only clue being some discarded pizza boxes.

  5. Sure, I can see the disadvantage... by garyisabusyguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That the 'experts' are worrying about, but really... what are the other options?

    What are the potential outcomes of letting the hatchlings make their way into the polluted water?
        Turtles die of exposure to oil
        Turtles survive because all the predators have already died from the oil
        Most turtles die, except for a few that have a natural ability to survive on oil
        Surviving turtles attack remaining oil reservoirs and consume them

    Seriously, I think that the people who have committed themselves to preventing a straight up die off of an entire generation of gulf-coast turtles should be commended as heros.

    fwiw, I hope that the 70K extra turtle on the Atlantic coast overwhelm the natural predators and allow more hatchlings to reach adulthood. Is there a chance that the introduced population could displace the natives? Possibly.

    What have been the results of other navigating species (salmon, birds, monarch butterflies...) who are relocated?

    --
    Wherever You Go, There You Are
    1. Re:Sure, I can see the disadvantage... by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Funny

      You missed one outcome:
      - Turtles grow to their teenage years, mutate and then move into the city sewers placing a strain on pizza joints who are unable to figure out where to deliver the pizza.

  6. always nay-sayers by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You are always going to have people complain, even if you came up with a 100% clean, 100% efficient new energy source there would be some people who complain the miss the taste of pollution or something. Will the turtles die?

    His view is backed up by evidence that suggests turtles are programmed from birth to follow a specific migratory path once in water. Indeed, turtles from different nesting sites seem to inherit different sets of navigational instructions.

    Basically, in the past they have exposed turtles (in tanks?) to magnetic fields and found that they follow the magnetic fields as if they were navigating through the ocean. It kind of surprises me that no one has ever taken a turtle from Texas and put it in the ocean in Florida just to see what would happen. Here is their chance: hope they pay attention to what the turtles do.

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    Qxe4
  7. Re:A Waste Of Time by garyisabusyguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This study shows how the east coast turtles make their way to the gulf stream using; visual cues, wave direction and (finally) magnetic direction:
    http://www.unc.edu/depts/oceanweb/turtles/offshr.html

    They do not show any info on how they make their way back.
    What information are you using to determine that they will just wander back to the gulf?

    At the very least this will give a great study on the 'homing' tendencies of turtles. Do they reurn to where they were hatched (learned behavior) or do they return to where their genetic forebearers lived (genetic imprinting)?

    What advantage do you see to allowing them to die? Is it simply less work for humans? And if those people were not already actively invovled in fixing the well or cleaning up sludge, what negative effect could it have on those efforts?

    --
    Wherever You Go, There You Are
  8. Re:What Food? by Gavin+Scott · · Score: 5, Funny

    Indeed, and when those poor turtles have been exposed to all the toxic mutagens in the oil and the weird chemical dispersants that have been employed, we could all be in serious trouble once they become teenagers...

    G.

  9. Turtle relocation is easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    RIGHT 90
    RIGHT 90
    FORWARD 100