Photograph: Annabelle Sandes/Kimberley Whale Watching/WWF

 Satellite images show a 25,000 square kilometre slick spreading across the surface of the ocean and spilling into Indonesian waters, threatening the marine reserves of Ashmore and Cartier reefs.

The Kemp's ridley nesting season on Texas beaches and Mexico's beaches has concluded. In a nutshell, the exciting news from Mexico is that 21,144 nests were found with one million hatchlings released into the Gulf of Mexico. You can get more information at http:///www.seaturtle.org/PDF'BurchfieldPM_2009_ReportontheMexicoUnitedStatesofAmer.pdf

It is important to remember that each female Kemp's ridley usually nests twice during the season and some nest three times which complicates the math on just how many ridley females are nesting each year. In addition, biologists vary on just how many of the one million hatchlings will survive to become adults. The numbers one of a thousand seem to be accepted, but with one million hatchlings making it to the surf, we can look for increasing numbers in the future.

The staff and all those who work at the Mexican beach nesting sites are to be congratulated for another year of hard work.

 From activists in the Kimberly of Northwest Australia

Save Our Kimberley Bulletin

FIRST ATTEMPT TO PLUG OIL LEAK FAILS - ABC News

"The company responsible for an oil leak off the north-west coast of Australia says the first attempt to plug the leak with mud and stop the flow of oil has been unsuccessful.

It has been more than six weeks since oil first started leaking from the West Atlas oil rig.

Operator PTTEP Australasia has been trying to stop the leak by drilling a relief well for the past three weeks."

For more see http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/06/2706299.htm?site=local

PRESS RELEASE

OIL SPILL "LIKE A SCENE FROM A DISASTER MOVIE"
- Press Release

"Environs Kimberley Director Martin Pritchard flew over the West Atlas oil spill over the weekend. The flight from Broome headed to the oil spill before heading off 30km due east and turning around to refuel at Truscott.

“Seeing it first hand was a real shock, it was like something from a disaster movie. The rig was billowing smoke and there was a sheen of oil from horizon to horizon. We followed the
oil for 30km due east and all you could see from the cockpit was oil covering the sea, when we turned around the slick was heading in an easterly and northerly direction towards
Indonesia” Mr Pritchard said.

“What we realized when we got to the rig was that the slick appeared to be heading in a southerly direction which is a change to the north-easterly direction of the last three weeks.

This is a real worry if it’s now heading for the Kimberley coast” said Mr Pritchard.

“We’re very concerned that the Federal government is scaling back its efforts particularly if the oil slick is now heading towards the Kimberley.

“We are particularly concerned because from what we saw there is still a massive amount of oil coming from the well and we are not at all confident in the Federal Minister for Resources Martin Ferguson’s assessment that less oil is coming out. The government have admitted they
don’t know what the flow rate is so how can they know less oil is coming out? The photos we have show a huge slick coming from the well” said Mr Pritchard.

The Kimberley coast is one of the world’s most intact large tropical marine ecosystems with a coral reef province of global significance. The seas in the area are known as a ‘marine superhighway’ because of the amount of dolphins, whales, turtles, seabirds and fish found there.

Environs Kimberley is calling for marine sanctuaries to protect Kimberley marine areas from threats posed by the oil and gas industry."

http://www.environskimberley.org.au/press/09_sep14_MR_Oil_spill_scene_from_disaster_movie.pdf

YURI, our male Pacific green (black) tagged with a satellite transmitter at Cocos Island last month appears to have left the relative safety of Cocos Island and is 179 km east of the Island.

NONIE, our female Pacific green (black) tagged with a satellite transmitter at Cocos Island moved 75 km east, but now seems to be headed back to Cocos.

View their daily tracks by clicking HERE and then clicking on the individual turtle’s name (http://www.seaturtles.org/article.php?id=1423)

And if you haven’t taken action to protect Costa Rica’s most important leatherback nesting site, click here NOW and send an email action alert!
(http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1723/t/6251/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2089)

The oil spilling from a damaged rig in the Timor Sea above Australia's Top End is threatening sea turtles and whales. The Kimberly region in the northwest corner of the country is several hundred kilometers south of the spill where Australian flatbacks, hawksbills, and greens nest.

An Australian TV program recently highlighted the Kimberly region and its humpback whales, which have returned from near-extinction.  It is a stunning piece that gives you a short but memorable overview of the whales, the people, the land and the nearby oil spill.

Recently, olive ridley hatchlings were found for the first time in Western Australia -- adding another sea turtle species that relies on this remote and wild coastal region. According to the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance , "the Bardi-Jawi Rangers had an extraordinary find recently--Olive Ridley hatchlings in Western Australia!

What makes this extraordinary is that WA is not a part the recognised range of Olive Ridleys as the species has never before been recorded in the west.

Further adding to the story, the hatchlings were reported to the Rangers by one of the Awesome Foursome Olympic rowers on a beach that had been closed by Traditional Owners to four wheel drive traffic to protect turtle nests."

Public Comment from the Ocean Task Force Hearing in San Francisco:

I am asking that the Obama administration give top priority in its Ocean policy to research and assist sea turtles, whose populations are decreasing at this alarming and unacceptable rate and whose ultimate peril or survival is effected by the same threats and protections that impact all the creatures of our seas.

Having survived cataclysmic changes to the earth for a continuum of 100 million years, the sea turtle is to me, the most articulate ambassador of the sea, and we will benefit most profoundly by giving her voice. We are offered a rare and perhaps fleeting opportunity to save thousands of species by focusing on one creature: the sea turtle.

-By studying the depletion of sea turtle populations, we will understand in greater depth and breadth, why our oceans are dying and how we can help them to recover.

Why study the sea turtle? Sea turtles shared the planet with dinosaurs, outliving climatic and other changes to the sea and earth that few species ever have. Its remarkable adaptability and resilience makes the sea turtle the ideal subject to study the foundational issues that threaten our oceans as well as the baseline legislation required to guarantee the barest survival of our seas.  

What else makes the sea turtle the ideal subject of study?

1) First, they are among the easiest sea creatures to tag and monitor, and several committed organizations already have projects are underway, but are in need of assistance to continue and expand these studies.
2) Second, the sea turtle is migratory, and following their routes helps us to identify areas of the oceans that are most gravely effected by various threats and which are most in need of protection.
3) Third, the sea turtle is intimately effected by the major issues threatening our all sea creatures—over-fishing and destructive fishing policies and practices; biological, chemical, and consumer-related pollution; and over-development of coastal regions. By studying the impact of these and other threats to sea turtle populations in particular, we learn with the greatest possible ease and the least possible expense, how to protect and recover the ecosystems of oceans in general.

I ask respectfully and with urgency that you please make the study and rescue of sea turtles a very top priority in this administration’s ocean policy.  Thank you for your kind attention and consideration.

Jennifer Sauer
Mill Valley, CA

The Cocos Expedition was a great success with 26 sea turtles (25 Pacific green "black" turtles  and one hawksbill turtle) tagged with permanent flipper tags, nine of those tagged with acoustical tags and four with satellite transmitters.  Additionally six hammerhead sharks were tagged.

You can watch the movements of the satellite tagged turtles by clicking here and you can read the full expedition report here.

Three trips are planned for 2010, two of which are open to STRP members.  To learn more click here.

Chevron's Gorgon project in Northwestern Australia south of Port Hedland is a disaster for sea turtles which nest on Barrow Island. The project was approved by the Australian government despite opposition from environmental groups and it's own environmental advisors. Read the article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Since Chevron has taken over the existing oil drilling rigs on Barrow Island, environmental protection has gone downhill, according to people who have worked there. Australian flatback sea turtles nest on the remote island and forage and breed in the surrounding waters. This rare sea turtle nests only in Australia and is protected by the government. Yet that has not stopped the Western Australia government's new premiere Colin Barrett, a conservative, from giving it the green light.

The project is also dependent on very questionable carbon sequestration technology, where the excess CO2 from natural gas production will be pumped under the island instead of released into the atmosphere. This approach has never been proven to be safe or environmentally sound.

 Up the coast in the Kimberly, fossil fuel giants want to build even more dirty plants for natural gas processing that would destroy a relatively intact eco-system. Chevron and the other oil barons need to pull back. See more at www.seaturtles.org and http://www.savethekimberley.com/

Day IV

More diving, more turtles!  We are now up to eight green turtles captured from four different dives sites around the island, though most are from Manuelita Garden, a protected shallow coral reef area.  We have replaced our last “night dive with a 4th afternoon dive in Manuelita Garden, where we find turtles resting at 40-60 feet along the coral/sand margins.  They appear curious of us and it is easy to capture them. The hard part of course is getting them (and ourselves) to the surface safely. We have developed a two-person method where one person grabs the turtle and directs him upward and a second person grabs the first diver, deflates his/her BC (buoyancy compensator) and controls ascent time and speed to the surface, where the turtle is passed up to someone in the skiff.  

Once aboard the turtles are measured, weighed and tagged with permanent flipper tags and a small tissue sample is taken for genetic analysis.  Some turtles also get one of the four satellite tags and/or nine acoustical tags we have with us.  Satellite tagging involves an additional step of cleaning and drying the surface of the plastron (top shell) and gluing the tag onto the turtle with special epoxy.  Acoustical tags are attached by drilling tiny holes at the margin of the carapace, and fastening the tag with zip ties.  With this latest batch of turtles, we have three turtles outfitted with satellite transmitters and six with acoustical tags.  We are saving our last satellite tag for a hawksbill turtle if we are lucky enough to find one!

Sometime over the last weekend of August, an anonymous call was left on the STRP sea turtle hotline in the Gulf Office in Houston. A man's voice said that we "better lighten up on the endangered thing" and mumbled on about too many rules and regulations about shrimping and fishing. He sounded old, weary and maybe tired of struggling to make a living. Perhaps he hadn't heeded warnings about overfishing and reduction of wasteful bycatch in the Gulf of Mexico.

Obviously, the call was prompted by newspaper articles about two dead Kemp's ridleys that were found in a shrimp trawl near Galveston Island on August 1. Federal officials removed the turtles leaving the trawl to sink into the murky waters. NOAA law enforcement wanted the see that trawl and STRP supporters came up with $500 reward money to find who was responsible for killing the turtles. No one came forward so the reward went to divers who labored for hours locating it and getting it to the surface. The trawl itself points to those who may have cut it from the shrimp boat leaving two endangered sea turtles to struggle for freedom in vain and then die trapped at the bottom of the channel. The trawl may lead to the ones who are responsible and should face the consequences.

To the anonymous caller, the answer is, "No, we won't ever 'lighten up on the endangered thing.'"

DAY III:

Shark Day—Lots of hammerheads at Big Dos Amigo and Alcyone, but none close enough to tag.  The afternoon dive was at Silverado and two silvertips circled us repeatedly, sometime coming within 3 feet of me, obviously checking me out, as we hung out at their cleaning station.  The larger of the two had a left pectoral fin with a significant bend in it… posiibly a past injury?  A handful of jacks followed them around  rubbing up against them, a similar behavior I have been seeing between rainbow runners and white teip sharks. On the way home, we found a downy brown booby chick floating in the open sea.  Nonie scoped it up and the Park Rangers came later to take it to land. I don’t know its fate…

Meanwhile, the other team tagged its first hammerhead at Dirty Rock and Edwar caught three green turtles, an adult male (missing 1/2 of its right flipper), a female and a juvenile.  We measured, weighed and tagged them, and brought them back to Dirty Rock for release before dinner. When we got there, three more greens were hanging at the surface, but we left them alone… for now.

Day II:  

After getting two of yesterday’s turtles weighed, measured and transmitters attached, we’re off to Dirty Rock, a seamount named for the large number of stains on the rocks from the nesting boobies who make it their home.  Our first early morning dive has me sitting at 110 feet with a gear gun, waiting for hammerheads to swim within 1 meter, so I can collect a small biopsy for future genetic studies of the sharks.  Scores of sharks are swimming by and finally I aim and shoot and hit the shark squarely on the mark—right below the dorsal fin.  The shark, startled by the prick takes off.  Unfortunately, so does the entire shaft holding the biopsy tip, as the retrieval wire breaks and the shark swims off.  With only a few minutes of air left, I return to the panga slightly disappointed, but amazed by all the close encounters with these magnificent and beautiful fish. 

On the way back to the main vessel, the Argo, we are accompanied by a pod of bottlenose dolphins…  I return on the next dive and search for the shaft unsuccessfully, submerging to 130 feet, the maximum depth for diving with our special mixture of oxygen & nitrogen.  Dive three ends when I catch a 70 lb female green turtle and deliver her to the panga.

COCOS AUG 20-30, 2009

Passage

I arrive in Costa Rica only to find that my checked luggage no longer contained the epoxy and sealant needed to attach the satellite transmitter to the turtles.  Did it disappear in the US or Costa Rica?  The mystery remains…Luckily, I had packed my most critical gear (transmitters, prescription mask, contacts) in my carry-on and there was time to track down the needed adhesives in Costa Rica before we left.

Diego Amorocho, a turtle biologist from Colombia was not so lucky.  His checked luggage didn’t arrive at all, and he set sail with us without his clothes, or his dive gear…

We left Puntarenas sometime after noon, and the trip out proved to be a bit rocky.  Several folks besides myself were feeling a bit queasy… the sighting of several humpback whale breaches though, lifted our spirits!  Thirty hours later, right after dark, the engines faded to silence—signaling we had arrived!  All feelings of seasickness evaporated and we would be diving in the morning.

1st Day at Cocos

What a day!  Four green turtles captured. Three of the turtles get satellite transmitters, all four get acoustic receivers and permanent flipper tags.  We also collect several white tip shark genetic samples.  During the work, we encounter a ~25 foot whale shark, thousands of big eye jacks spawning with silky sharks swimming through the giant school, amorous male white tip sharks chasing females, dolphins, hundreds of marbled rays, and we still have time for a night dive, where we get to watch hundreds of white tip sharks feeding in a giant school.  What more can I say…

We have several new participants and a few repeat volunteers.  Two of the new folks include two old friends from college, Matt and Chris.  Chris, aka “Happy,” is a surgeon and Matt is a dentist.  After hearing the woes of losing our signal from the two turtles we put satellite transmitters on in March, and seeing our operation, their expertise clicked into gear, and discussions of using human surgical techniques of attaching plates to broken skulls, and the latest adhesion technology used in teeth have generated several alternatives we may try in the future.  Not only do they have ideas, but they promise to use their connections with the company representatives to try to get us some free samples!  And Matt also promises when he gets back to have his sail-maker friend make us a sling for moving big, heavy turtles from the “panga” to the main vessel where we attach the transmitters!  This is exactly the kind of collaboration that makes my heart sore… people using their skills to help protection the oceans!

Photo: Scott Benson, NOAA

A fisherman reported to Sea Turtles Forever in Portland, Oregon, that he had seen a giant leatherback sea turtle:

OREGON LEATHERBACK SIGHTING!

August 5th 2009, 6 miles due west of Newport,Oregon. Turtle was in 42 fathoms and water was 52 degrees. Below is the report from the NW Leatherback hotline.

The Sea Turtle Restoration Project has sponsored a toll-free number for reporting sea turtles, nests, tracks and hatchlings in Texas for six years.  This service proved invaluable on July 26.  Tourists walking on Quintana Beach west of Freeport, Texas, saw 20 to 30 tiny hatchlings scrambling for the water.  They remembered a number seen on beach signs, bookmarks and brochures and called 866-TURTLE-5.  They were able to reach Shane Kassoon of the US Fish and Wildlife Service at the San Bernard Wildlife Refuge not far away.  He rushed to the scene and was able to find the nest where the hatchlings had emerged.  It turned out to be the 196th Kemp's ridley sea turtle nest for 2009 breaking last year's record of 195 nests. This is the greatest number of nests since records were began in the early 80s.  The 866 number made a big difference!

Although the “green” plankton-rich waters closer to shore are associated with the feeding congregations of whales sharks, a three-hour boat ride further offshore into the blue waters, finds us in the largest concentrations of animals.  As many as 270 individuals have been seen in recent days, the largest concentration ever observed by Rachel Graham, Ph.D., who has studied the whales all over the world, and is here tagging the sharks and manta rays.

We find ourselves in a relatively small(?) aggregation, estimated at 60-80 whale sharks by our guide Abraham Jesus Kantun Amaro, whose energy and enthusiasm is simply amazing.  I can see as many as six sharks at the surface looking straight ahead and can count up to 16 doing a quick 360 turn before I am lose track of whether I am double-counting.

So why are they here and not in the rich soupy green (and red-streaked) waters closer to shore?  The water is apparently filled with “zillions” (that’s a scientific term) of nearly microscopic fish eggs.  You can’t see them in the water, but you can find a few in your hair when you get out of the water.  Later that night, Rachel Graham showed me a photo of a double handful she collected in a plankton net they towed for just three minutes!

Rachel and her team are not the only scientists and/or conservationists here to witness this incredible spectacle, besides our group (which includes US National Marine Sanctuary folks, and myself from Turtle Island).  Overhead a National Geographic team is taking aerial photos, and last night we met folks from Dr. Sylvia Earle’s Deep Search Foundation, and folks from the International League of Conservation Photographers at dinner.

We are all blown away by what we have seen, but I keep reminding myself that that a vast array of life existed in the ocean everywhere (even right where you live!) in the days before industrial fishing, massive habitat destruction and uncontrolled pollution.

It’s great to know there is so much concern and support for this incredible place and its amazing marine inhabitants, like the whale shark, listed as threatened by the IUCN.  That is what it is going to take to take to save this remarkable marine oasis—and restore the ocean ecosystems on which we all depend.

(photos by Emma Hickerson)

The attraction to Holbox is whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, the world's largest living fish.  How Big Are They?  While stories of whale sharks as large as 70 feet or more exists, the largest verifiable record is 40 feet with an approximated weight of 30,000 pounds. Most of the ones we saw were probably closer to 20 feet, and we may have seen one approaching 30 feet.

 Little is known about this gentle giant, but studies are now under way in many places where they are found to aggregate including off the coast of Belize, the Yucatan of Mexico, and Honduras.  Tagging, photo identification, and placement of satellite transmitters are the tools now being used to unravel the mysteries that surround this animal, and will allow us to understand their migrations, their population status and their behavior.

But the rich planktonic waters attract other filter feeders too.  Out in the waters made green and red by different species of plankton, we found dozens of giant manta rays, Manta birostris, many with wingspans exceeding 12 feet, and schools of Cownose rays, Rhinoptera bonasus, a small ray that seemed to be flying through the water in formation.  Devil rays, Mobula mobula,r looking a lot like smaller versions of mantas were also abundant.
The guided experience inside the marine protected area was very nice.  Our guides, licensed by the Mexican government were very conscientious, making sure no one touched a whale shark and preventing visitors from coating their bodies with sunscreen that could harm the marine wildlife.  The Park Guard boat was present numerous times, and though carrying US researchers, its presence no doubt kept visitors on their best behavior.

But on our second trip out, no Park Guard vessel was present, and some tourists could be seen touching and even "riding" the whale sharks.  Our guide informed us that those boats were not licensed,  and not from Holbox, but had come from Isla Mujeres or possibly from Cancun.

Another problem-more than one whale shark was seen to have a ragged dorsal fin, probably the result of propeller cut.  Too many boats and too many visitors is an issue that will have to be carefully monitored and controlled to ensure the safety of the marine species.

Emma Hickerson photo

I'm here in Holbox, an island just north of Cancun, Mexico. In the past 5 years it has become a prime destination to view the largest fish in the world, the incredible whale shark.  Growing to 40 feet, these gentle giants are amazing beautiful blue-grey with white polka-dots covering its entire upper surface that look like they were dabbed on by a talented artist.  These placid plankton feeders arrive every summer to feed offshore on a migration that researchers are still trying to unravel.  

Thanks to the efforts of shark conservationists (and the large number of sharks available for viewing), the rules for whale shark eco-tourists are strict and appear to be relatively well enforced.  The animals gracefully feed at or near the surface in the rich soupy-green waters, and the rules allow only two tourists to snorkel (no scuba) around a single whale shark at any given time, (but no closer than 6 feet) with no touching of the animals allowed.

Yet the island itself seems like it is being transformed from a sleepy fishing village into a major tourist destination with construction everywhere.  (Note, this is my first visit to Holbox, so this is mere speculation, but based on my observations from other places).  Watch for more observations as I continue to explore.

It appears that the 2009 nesting season of the Kemp's ridley sea turtles on the Texas coast is over. But there is still work to be done. From now on, weaker live ridley hatchlings released in Mexico or at Padre Island National Seashore may wash up and strand on beaches on the upper Texas coast. The first live stranded ridley hatchling was found struggling in the surf on Sunday on June 21. He is currently undergoing rehabilitation at the NOAA Sea Turtle Facility in Galveston. Last year, more than a dozen of these stranded hatchlings were found, so residents and tourists are asked to continue watching for sea turtles when walking on the beach. From now on, the turtles may be very tiny ones. To report a hatchling sighting, call 866-TURTLE-5.

   I just saw a preview showing of "The Cove," and this film is going to make giant waves when it hits theatres this August.  So don't miss it!  This film is much more than a documentary, and if the story wasn't all true, you might think you were watching a great spy-thriller suspense film.  But it is reality, and this film documents a horrific dolphin slaughter in Japan that has gone relatively unnoticed for years.  And it uncovers the mislabeling of mercury-laden dolphin meat being harvested and sold in Japan to unsuspected consumers who don't know that what they are buying is toxic, or the fact that the meat is tied to a horrendous slaughter and a multibillion dollar industry.

   And if that wasn't enough, this film also tells this story through the work of Ric O'Barry, the trainer of the most famous dolphin of all, the TV star "Flipper" of the 1960s, and his personal transformation from dolphin trainer to dolphin activist. 

   Lastly of course, this film is being distributed by the same folks (Participant Media), who helped to assure that Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," led viewers to take social action to improve the world.  In this case, it is sorely needed to end a tragedy that is blight on human history.