People– appreciation
L.A. Times staff writer Louis Shahagun brings us a story about endangered sea turtles who’d set up an interesting colony in the San Gabriel River near a power plant.
Dr. Lance Adams, staff veterinarian at the Aquarium of the Pacific peers into a holding tank at an endangered green sea turtle that was caught earlier today in a Long Beach canal. Federal officials tried for days to capture the creature, fearing vandals would succeed first and kill the animal.
In the foamy chop of the warm-water discharge flowing into the San Gabriel River from a Long Beach power plant, a green sea turtle, wide as a manhole cover, materialized Friday just a few yards from shore.
A few minutes later, an even larger sea turtle surfaced in the murky water near the plant’s thicket of steel scaffolding, steam vents and transmission lines.
Green sea turtles usually have tropical haunts — teeming coral reefs or white sandy beaches where they lay eggs — but these chunky titans live more than a mile upstream in one of Southern California’s most ecologically degraded rivers.
Little is known about the colony of at least six urban sea turtles. But a joint study by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Aquarium of the Pacific aims to determine, among other things, what they’re doing in there.
“Right now, it’s a small group of what might be considered oddball turtles,” said Peter Dutton, a senior researcher with the fisheries service. “But we have a lot to learn about them. Are they part of a more complex sea-turtle migration dynamic than we ever imagined, or just lost wanderers?”
Scientists also want to know how the federally endangered animals are adapting to the unique challenges they face in the 100-yard-wide river channel at the Los Angeles County-Orange County line, next to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Haynes Generating Station. Those challenges include speedboats, water skiers, baited hooks, urban runoff, tons of garbage and harassment.
Interesting, Kathleen. I’m wondering if the sea turtles like the warm water by the power plant since they are usually tropical.
Isn’t the San Gabriel River freshwater? I’m happy to hear that divers hired by the DWP are rescuing them since they were probably trapped in whirlpools of the intake channel near the power plant. Pretty cool that a 45-pound turtle was spotted and rescued. Veterinarians found a hook in its rear flipper and another gash.
Janessa and Mary Alice, from the L.A. Times article I learned that aquarium officials advise releasing that big turtle back into the colony that is doing well near the power plant. Fisheries service biologist Joseph Cordaro was one of the first scientists to make a positive identification of sea turtles that make their way up rivers which can be pretty brackish.
Fascinating post, Kathleen. It seems that lots of species, including humans, all over the world are migrating from their natural habitats in this time of climate change.
Linda