GULFPORT, Miss. (WSVN) — Experts at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS) received several calls of over 30 endangered Kemp Ridley sea turtles found dead along the shorelines of Jackson, Hancock and Harrison counties in Southern Mississippi. Although finding dead sea turtles are common during stranding season, which occurs between the months of February and August, IMMS stranding coordinator Theresa Madrigal said these numbers are above average.
“Once we receive a report about a stranded sea turtle, we mobilize our team here and we go out,” she said. “What we do is collect photographs and basic data on the animal. We are looking at the scene basically like a crime scene.”
The institute normally finds the remains of 60 dead sea turtles during the stranding season, but Madrigal believed the winds on the coast could be a factor in the high number of deaths.
“The winds have been pretty high the last few days in the direction to push carcasses on shore,” said Madrigal.
The Kemp Ridley sea turtles are native only to the Gulf of Mexico and have a very small nesting range. Across all species of sea turtles, the estimation is that only one in a thousand hatchlings will make it to an adult to reproduce.
Over the next few weeks, the IMMS will be working with state and federal partners to conduct animal autopsies where they will examine all the internal organs of the animals and collect samples to be sent off for histopathology testing, which will run for a few more weeks and may even expand to months.
The IMMS currently does not have a time frame as to when they will know what’s causing the deaths.
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