More trouble for sea turtles

With many sea turtle eggs hatched and released into the Atlantic Ocean as a way to avoid the Gulf Oil Spill, things may be hard for the Loggerheads. From Eureka:

During embryonic development turtle eggs spend long periods covered by sand under conditions of high humidity and warm temperatures, which are known to favor the growth of soil-born fungi. Dr Diéguez-Uribeondo's team focused their study on the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) population on Boavista Island, Cape Verde, off the West African coast. While Boavista Island represents one of the most important nesting regions for this species a high hatching failure rate is driving population numbers down. The team sampled egg shells with early and severe symptoms of infection, as well as diseased embryos from sea turtle nests located in Ervatao, Joao Barrosa and Curral Velho beaches and discovered 25 isolates of F. solani associated with egg mass mortalities. Although this fungal species has been previously described in association with different infections in animals, its relationship to hatching failure had not been investigated before this study. The finding that strains of F. solani may act as a primary pathogen in loggerhead sea turtles represents an extremely high risk to the conservation of loggerhead sea turtles across the area.

The good news for this year's releases is that they were hatched in secure locations. Furthermore, the identification leads conservations and scientists to a starting path of recovery. To read the full press release, click here.