compared to 

 1,836 last year. 

 Nationally, 

 2,824 turtles 

 were found in 

 1995, and 

 though all the 

 data isn't in yet 

 for 1996, Teas 

 projects more 

 than 3,000 

 strandings. 

 Most of these 

 occur on the 

 East Coast; the 

 water off the 

 Pacific coast is 

 generally too 

 cold for turtles. 



Why are 

 strandings in- 

 creasing? The 

 hard answer to 

 that question is 

 that no one 

 really knows. 



Educated Guesses 



Some people maintain that 

 strandings have increased because 

 turtle populations are recovering — 

 there are simply more turtles in the 

 oceans now. But Boettcher says sup- 

 porting this assertion is difficult, espe- 

 cially when so little is known about the 

 turtles themselves. 



"We're at a disadvantage because 

 we don't have answers to many of the 

 life history questions, such as how long 

 the turtles live and when they reach 

 maturity, so it's hard to form popula- 

 tion models," Boettcher says. "We 

 don't even know where all the nesting 

 sites are in the world." 



What is known is that a high juve- 

 nile mortality rate has a devastating 

 effect on the entire population. With a 

 high percentage of eggs and hatchlings 

 taken by predators and with juveniles 

 dying along our coasts, the chances for 

 animals to reach maturity and repro- 

 duce grow slim. Without increased 

 rates of successful reproduction, the 

 populations can't grow. All of the ex- 



perts agree that protecting nests and 

 improving hatchlings' ability to get 

 into the water is important. But even 

 more crucial is reducing mortality at 

 later life stages, especially among juve- 

 niles. 



According to Boettcher, the turtles 

 that strand in North Carolina are usu- 

 ally loggerheads, which find our coast- 

 line agreeable for nesting. The inshore 

 waters provide crucial foraging 

 grounds and shelter for young turtles. 



"That's reflected in our stranding 

 data," Boettcher says. "A large number 

 of the stranded turtles here are juvenile 

 loggerheads, and the majority of the 

 other species found were juveniles as 

 well." 



In North Carolina, turtles are 

 found offshore year-round and in in- 

 shore waters April through December. 

 As in most animal populations, juve- 

 niles are the most abundant and there- 

 fore strand more frequently than adults. 



Teas says that turtles killed more 

 than five miles from land probably will 

 not strand, so the mortality rates for 

 turtles in open waters is unknown. And 

 of the turtles dying in nearshore waters, 



it is estimated 

 that only a frac- 

 tion will ever 

 strand. 



For the 

 turtles that do 

 beach, pinpoint- 

 ing the cause of 

 death is difficult 

 unless their bod- 

 ies present obvi- 

 ous clues, such 

 as propeller lac- 

 erations or plas- 

 tic bags in their 

 throats. Accord- 

 ing to Boettcher, 

 members of the 

 network can 

 ascertain the 

 probable cause 

 of death in only 

 about 20 percent 

 of the strandings 

 because the bod- 

 ies are usually too decomposed to give a 

 clear reading. And most of the probable 

 causes are "educated guesses," she says. 



For example, when a turtle found 

 during the winter months shows no vis- 

 ible cause of death, they assume that the 

 animal probably was cold stunned, a 

 fatal condition brought on by sudden and 

 prolonged exposure to frigid water tem- 

 peratures. 



Nature's Toll 



Sheryan Epperly, a research fishery 

 biologist with the National Marine Fish- 

 eries Service laboratory in Beaufort, 

 believes that strandings in North Caro- 

 lina were high last year due in part to 

 two natural mortality events — mass 

 strandings of turtles that presumably 

 died from natural causes. 



The first occurred in early May. 

 Over the course of one week, 21 turtles 

 were found between Nags Head and 

 Hatteras Inlet. According to Boettcher, 

 what killed the turtles remains a mystery. 



The second event is equally puz- 

 zling for researchers. From the latter part 

 of May until the end of June, 15 necrotic 

 — clearly diseased — turtles were found 



18 MARCH/APRIL 1997 



