Endangered turtles wash up on Irish shores

from
http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstor ... hores.html

THE Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and Marine Environmental Monitoring (MEM) have reported unusually large numbers of turtles being washed up on beaches in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland in the last six weeks.


South-westerly winds are forecast to continue and more turtles are expected to wash up on UK and Irish shores in coming weeks. While stranded turtles may appear to be dead, they may in fact be comatose due to the cold conditions, and can be nursed back to health if rescued and given expert care.

The turtle strandings started in Scotland in late December, when a dead juvenile loggerhead washed up on the shores of Islay. Since then, another 10 turtles have stranded on beaches in Gwynedd and Anglesey in Wales, Argyll in Scotland, Clare, Cork and Wexford in the Republic of Ireland, and in England, including two live loggerhead turtles, one that washed up at Bude, Cornwall on January 26 and another that washed up at Putsborough Beach, North Devon last Saturday.
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While many of the turtles reported this year have washed up dead, three have been alive. Under no circumstances should live turtles be put back into the sea here in the UK, as this will kill them.

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Live stranded turtles can also be reported to the RSPCA on 08705 555 999 (England and Wales), the SSPCA on 0131 339 0111 (Scotland), Environment and Heritage Service on 02870 823 600 (Northern Ireland) or University of Cork 00353 (0)21 4904140 (Republic of Ireland) or to Marine Environmental Monitoring (MEM) on 01348 875 000. Live turtles should not be put back in the sea, but placed in a dry, sheltered place until animal welfare experts can collect them for rehabilitation

Also look here
http://www.turtle.ie/index.htm

Are the turtles injured in any way?
Could they be discarded commercial longline/trawled bycatch?
A marvellous animal and with our waters warming up and the huge concentrations of jellyfish we see we will likely see more of them in the years to come.

if at all any of these are found by any of us,,,,, it would be a good idea to place a 40 to 60 watt bulb in a lamp,,,and try get it roughly 2 feet over the turtle,,, just to get some heat back into them ,,,

that reminds me i must put the generator back in the car :wink:

have a couple of spare bedside lamps somewhere :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

that reminds me i must put the generator back in the car :wink:

have a couple of spare bedside lamps somewhere :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

wow john your compassion amazes me i got you totally wrong :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

but im sure most of us would just bring the turtle home and do it :wink:

i better stick to the generator :lol:

i think if i happend to turn up at the house with a turtle under the arm i would get the marching orders :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:

well ill take yourself of the list for rehomes then so,,, belive it or not i had to cover the turtle tank in the shop with wire mesh,,,,
to stop people putting turtles into the tank than steel em :roll: :twisted:

no way :shock: :lol:

must be a lot of unwanted turtle pets knocking around then?

yes lots of em ,,, we try put people of and to be honest, i have to say fair play to the lads i have they do a good job turning people away from buying em


but we recently discovered a turtle available to us that only gets to roughly 3 to 6 inches fully grown