300 Rare Green Sea Turtles Killed Due to Climate Change
The innocent turtles are found along the coast with difficulties in breathing or keeping their heads up. Wildlife volunteers and activists have been continuously trying to prevent them from asphyxiating by keeping them on the shore.
Climate change is affecting wildlife across the world in some way or the other. In a recent such incident, nearly 300 rare species of pacific green sea turtles have been found dead on the southern Pacific coast of Mexico.
The innocent turtles are found along the coast with difficulties in breathing or keeping their heads up. Wildlife volunteers and activists have been continuously trying to prevent them from asphyxiating by keeping them on the shore.
According to an estimate so far, 292 sea turtles have died because of algae bloom that creates ride tide and the environmentalists have successfully saved around 27 green sea turtles.
According to the environmental protection authorities, the autopsies of the dead turtles have revealed that the innocent creatures have consumed sea salps that possibly had accumulations of algae toxins.
The green sea turtles are the rare species of sea turtle and are named so because of the greenish color of their fat and cartilage and not because of the color of their shells. They can be found mostly in tropical and subtropical waters. This special species of turtles also tend to migrate long distances between feeding grounds and the beaches, where they normally hatched.
Green sea turtles have been widely classified as endangered, which means they are already in danger of extinction and have only a significant portion of their population. The main threats to this species also include hunting of the adult turtles, loss of nesting beaches, overharvesting of their eggs and being caught during fishing.
Red tide is a phenomenon on sea, which is caused by algal blooms. In which the algae becomes so widespread that coastal waters get discolored and turns red and when such things happen, the oxygen in the water gets depleted and the algae start to release toxins that can cause wildlife as well as humans in the area vulnerable, which also led to death.
Red tide can be brought by factors such as warm ocean surface temperatures, calms seas, low salinity and high nutrient content as well as rain followed by sunny days during the summer. Once the process begins, it also spreads to other places by winds, currents, storms and ships.
The sad part is that the rare species is a regular victim. In 2018 more than 300 turtles, were found dead off the coast of Oaxaca after they got entangled in the illegal fishing nets.
