THE SARGASSUM SEAWEED clogging the island’s beaches has claimed its first 42 lives.
Officials from the Barbados Sea Turtle Project were performing the grim task yesterday of removing the carcasses of 37 dead Hawksbill turtles from the seaweed mass at Long Beach, Christ Church.
On Sunday, they were eight Hawksbills caught in the seaweed in the same waters – five were dead – but Sea Turtle Project volunteers were able to rescue three and later release them off Oistins.
All the turtles were juveniles, in the range of five to eight years old.
It’s a situation that officials from the Sea Turtle project had been dreading, even though they figured it would have impacted hatchlings on their way out to sea or juvenile Green turtles which were known to frequent the shallow near-shore waters. (HLE)
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