The bodies of two loggerhead sea turtles were found on the Vineyard in recent weeks, both of which likely died out at sea before washing ashore on the Island.
While there were no signs that humans caused the death, that’s two more than all of last summer on the Island; two also recently washed ashore on Nantucket.
On June 17, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) Natural Resources Department, as part of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Sea Turtle Stranding Response Program, responded to a beach walker’s report of a deceased loggerhead near Zach’s Cliffs in Aquinnah.
The natural resource department determined there were no external markings or distinctions of human involvement in the turtle’s death, such as entanglement or propeller strikes, said Andrew Jacobs, the department’s laboratory manager and environmental technician. “Sea turtles do just expire,” he added.
Jacobs said it was a full adult of reasonable size. The curved carapace length, from the top of the shell at the nuchal scute along the midline to the posterior notch toward the bottom of the shell, was 32 inches.
The natural resources department — part of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) — retained the turtle, and will keep the shell for cultural purposes. The skeleton may be used as a teaching aid for educational purposes, Jacobs said.
The Island doesn’t always have a regular presence of loggerheads on the Island, but currents or other environmental phenomena pushed the sea turtle to the Island. It didn’t necessarily die here, Jacobs said.
There have been three live sea turtle sightings so far this year, but this was the first reported sea turtle death across the state’s whole response program.
“It’s interesting but unfortunate,” Jacobs said.
A few days later, on June 25, another loggerhead washed up about a half-mile west of the Lake Tashmoo Town Beach entrance, and was assessed by some staff members at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary. The sea turtle was buried onsite, up high near vegetation.
This loggerhead was almost identical in size to the one found in Aquinnah, Karen Dourdeville, sea turtle research coordinator for Mass Audubon Cape Cod, said. Both were probably mature females, she said.
There were zero strandings of loggerheads on the Island last year, Jacobs said. Only one leatherback sea turtle was found dead on August 22 of last year in Aquinnah, according to response program’s sighting maps.
On Nantucket, two loggerheads were also found deceased on June 28, according to the response program’s sighting maps.
All four loggerheads were in various stages of decomposition, and none showed signs of human involvement, Dourdeville said.
“It’s atypical,” Dourdeville said about four strandings in such close proximity: “These were also very large for what we typically see.”
“We hadn’t had many strandings on the Island for the past couple years,” Dourdeville said. “We hope this is it for the season.”
Loggerheads, and the other three species of turtles found off Cape Cod — leatherbacks, green, and Kemp’s ridley — are federally protected.
If you see a stranded sea turtle, contact a local stranding network partner, NOAA’s stranding hotline at 866-755-6622, or the Wellfleet Bay hotline at 508-349-2615, ext. 2. Report live or deceased sea turtle sightings at seaturtlesightings.org, or call 888-732-8878.
How many turtles are in the vineyard wind acceptable “kill” list?
Bernadette–None zero zio Nada keiner aucune nessuno eobs-eum !
Coincidently the EXACT same number of marine mammals
that are on the acceptable “kill” list.
Don’t you think it would be better to debate the real issues
rather than repeating the same old debunked pathetic lie and
making yourself look like a fool ?
The more pertinent question is how many actual kills
of birds, fish, marine mammals and crustations is Exxon
permitted to kill with their oil rigs ?
And why isn’t the times publishing the reports of
Sasquatch roaming the beaches of the Vineyard ?
I think the wind companies have been secretly breeding them and
using them as slaves to put up the towers. Humans after all
can’t lift anywhere near the weight that a Bigfoot can.
And now some of them have escaped and are “invading”
the vineyard. Why aren’t we talking about that ????
Bernadette, what about the lobsters? 🦞
They are dying off because the ocean water is too warm. The ocean water is too warm because we burn too many fossil fuels. Stop using coal. Stop using gas. Stop using oil. Stop buying plastic. Stop buying polyester.
How many turtles have been killed by wind operations?
Hydrocarbon operations?
All energy comes with environmental costs.
Albert, how many turtles 🐢 have been killed by wind operations?
Zero!
Thank vineyard wind Offshore wind need to be shut down
John– why not blame people who have umbrellas on south beach ?
I think they should be banned. SAVE THE TURTLES ! –Ban beach
umbrellas.
How did Vineyard Wind operations kill these turtles?
Should all wind turbines be shut down, or just the ones you can see?
John, why would you say that? Reporter, Hayley Duffy reported that the turtle deaths were not caused by humans.
Comments are closed.