Please Keep An Eye Out For Cold Stunned Sea Turtles

The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center has indicated that there are an unusually high number of cold stunned sea turtles being found all along the Virginia coast, and especially on the Eastern Shore. The term “cold stunning” refers to the hypothermic reaction that occurs when sea turtles are exposed to prolonged cold water temperatures. Initial symptoms include a decreased heart rate, decreased circulation, and lethargy, followed by shock, pneumonia and possibly death. 

Sea turtles are cold-blooded reptiles that depend on external sources of heat to determine their body temperature. Therefore, in cold water they do not have the ability to warm themselves, and must instead migrate to warmer waters.  It seems that this year cooler water temperatures have led to a much larger area of cold stun threat to sea turtles on the East Coast.

This photo of a Cold Stunned Sea Turtle was posted by the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center

Sea turtles are commonly found in waters off the Mid-Altantic and Northeast U.S. during the summer and early fall. They typically begin to migrate south by late October. It is largely unknown why some sea turtle do not migrate south prior to the drop in water temperatures. It is thought that animals foraging in shallow bays and inlets become susceptible to cold stunning because the temperatures in these areas can drop quite rapidly and unexpectedly. The Chesapeake Bay and the coastal bays of the Seaside are just this type of environment.

Cold stunning is not an unheard-of occurrence on the East Coast. In the Northeast Region, the largest concentration of cold stunned turtles occurs in Massachusetts, on the Cape Cod Bay beaches. In any given year, between 50 and 200 sea turtles are expected to cold stun in MA from late October through December. In addition to Massachusetts, New York, specifically Long Island beaches, also see several cold stunned turtles each winter. What is surprising (& concerning) is that the numbers are higher in all of these regions and are exceptionally high in Virgnia this winter.

Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are the most common cold stunned species. Also, loggerhead sea turtles and green sea turtles are often affected by cold stunning. These species are all found to have similar reactions to the cold water temperatures.

If you see a sea turtle on the beach, please do not attempt to assist it on your own.  Call the Virginia Marine Stranding Team immediately at (757) 385-7575. They are trained professionals who know how to best rescue and handle turtles. Often well-intentioned folks without proper training can do more damage than good for these turtles.

ESVA Science & Philosophy Seminars

There are two programs coming up at the Science and Philosophy Seminar that relate directly to the Shorekeeper mission. As most of our blog readers have expressed a desire to learn more about the waters of the Eastern Shore and the issues that affect it, we thought you might be interested in attending one of these sessions
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1.   Libby Norris will discuss the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Agricultural Stewardship Program on Friday, April 27th, at the ESVA Science and Philosophy Seminar. The Stewardship Program helps farmers implement conservation measures to prevent soil loss and improve water quality in the Bay and its tributaries.
Dr. Norris is a Watershed Restoration Scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She has been identifying, designing, and installing wetland and riparian buffer projects in Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed for over a decade. Her activities include working with farmers and landowners through outreach and education, coordinating conservation partners, and providing restoration expertise to CBF staff.

The ninety-minute seminar will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, April 27, 2012 in the Lecture Hall at the Eastern Shore Community College in Melfa.


2.   George Reiger will present a discussion on the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin at the ESAV Science and Philosophy Seminar on May 4th. The Commission's mission is to enhance, protect, and conserve the water and associated land resources of the Potomac River and its tributaries through regional and interstate cooperation.
George is a member of the Commission’s Executive Committee, and a board member of the Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper. He is a nationally recognized journalist and author covering recreational fishing, hunting, and related conservation issues.

The ninety-minute seminar will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, May 4, 2012 in the Lecture Hall at the Eastern Shore Community College in Melfa.


As always, we thank you for your vigilance on your creek and the lands that surround it.  The eyes and ears of our Creekwatchers are arguably the most valuable resource available to the Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper organization, and we appreciate your dedication to protecting, preserving, and improving the tidal waters of the Eastern Shore.

1st Annual Waterway Guardian Awards Presented by the Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper

The Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper is very excited to announce our 1st Annual Waterway Guardian Awards. Recipients will be recognized at the Shorekeeper’s annual Clamboree on August 18, 2012

“The intent of these awards is to recognize groups, agencies, and individuals who have made significant contributions toward clean water on the Eastern Shore of Virginia,” said John Ordeman, President of the Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper organization. “We felt it was time to shine a light on those whose local work and actions have been a positive force for helping preserve, protect, and restore our creeks, bays, and other precious natural resources."

There are three categories of awards: individuals and nongovernmental organizations; government agencies and/or elected or appointed government officials; and commercial enterprises. All nominees/recipients must live in or work on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and there may be multiple award recipients in each category.

The Shorekeeper organization invites anyone to make a nomination, which must be done using our nominating form (click this link to go to the form).

The deadline for submitting a nomination is July 1, 2012.

This month's UVA Science Seminar: The Hidden Part of Plants and Climate Change

As always the UVA LTER Science Seminar this month looks to be a provocative discussion of an interesting topic.  If you can fit it in to your schedule, this is a great way to learn about the really cool science that is being conducted every day right here on the Eastern Shore.

Public Seminar
Thursday, March 15th, 7pm
Anheuser-Busch Coastal Research Center in Oyster
757-331-1246
Free and open to the public

The Hidden Part of Plants and Climate Change: Getting to the Root of the Matter

Frank Day, Biology Department, Old Dominion University

 

            In coastal ecosystems, as well as most other systems, the greatest portion of plant growth, biomass, and carbon storage is below ground in the roots. This important part of the ecosystem is hidden by the surrounding soil matrix and therefor can’t be easily seen or measured without destructive sampling. Fully evaluating global concerns such as climate change depends upon accurate measurements of all major pieces of an ecosystem. Two new technologies offer a way to observe and measure roots in a non-destructive manner. Minirhizotrons are clear plastic tubes installed in the ground that use a special camera to film roots over time. Ground-penetrating radar provides a means to scan the soil surface and “see” the roots below. These technologies have been used at the Virginia Coast Reserve on Hog Island and in a long-term study of the effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide on Merritt Island, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Application of these technologies and results from the Florida study will be emphasized.

Fighitng Crappy Regulations

Every once in a while we ask some of you to "sign-on" to comments about various proposed laws or regulation changes.  These "sign-on" letters can be complex and nuanced things, but one of my fellow Waterkeepers provided what I think is an exceptional sign-on document for a rule change that the EPA is considering to alter the way the public is notified about bacteria levels at swimming beaches.  Diana Muller, our South Riverkeeper, provided an excellent argument for her case, presented it clearly, and tackled the issue straight on.  For those of you wondering what kinds of things Waterkeepers do... yes, we are out there in our boats, and in the courtrooms defending our waters, but a lot of effort goes in to the less glorious, but very important work of defending our waters from being sacrificed to special interest influences in governing bodies at all levels.
Politicians and regulators don't often go out looking for ways to weaken the legal protections of our waterways.  There's usually someone asking for a loosening of regulation to make their business more profitable.  In this case that business may even be the government itself as municipalities struggle to process growing streams of wastewater while keeping taxes and fees as low as they can.  As America continues to move toward the water we will all have to pay the price for overdeveloping our coastlines.  The question is, do you want to pay with a check, or by risking the health of your friends and family every time they go to the beach or hop on a boat?

Copied below is the core of this one issue as laid out by our South Riverkeeper.  There are hundreds of rule change battles like this fought around the country every year by Waterkeepers to achieve the goal of making all our waters swimmable, fishable, and drinkable as promised in the Clean Water Act.

TELL EPA NO TO “PLAYING CRAPS” WITH SWIMMERS’ HEALTH AND WELFARE!!

Unbelievably, EPA has proposed further weakening of already far too weak water quality criteria (WQC) aimed at waterborne pathogens at swimming beaches.  That’s correct—rather than fixing its 1986 bacterial criteria for water contact recreation waters, EPA wants to let states make them even less protective.  

Here are the facts:

The existing 25 year old criteria are based on the flawed belief that the public thinks that running at least a 1 in 28 chance of getting sick due to a day of beach swimming is acceptable.

n  A family of 4 would have a minimum of a 1 in 7 risk of someone contracting vomiting and or diarrhea after a day of swimming in water with an average concentration equal to that specified by the WQC

n  And, this EPA estimate does NOT include the additional risk of other common waterborne maladies, such as earache and skin rash

n  Of course, each person’s risk of illness would increase with each additional day of swimming

Even worse:

States following EPA’s current, already-weak approach do not close, or often, even post,  beaches unless a concentration of bacteria 3-times higher than that named in the average-concentration (GM, for “geometric mean”)  WQC has been found in a sample of beach water.  (EPA refers to these higher concentrations as SSMs, for “single sample maximums”.) 

But that’s not all of what’s seriously wrong with EPA’s existing bacterial WQC, which most states have adopted in one form or another. 

·      Despite the fact that the epidemiological studies upon which EPA claims it’s 1986 WQC were based involved people who went swimming on one—or at most, two—days, and the estimated illness rates for marine waters were derived by plotting daily average bacterial concentrations against illness rates among swimmers on a given day,  EPA expressed the WQC as acceptable 30-day average (GM) concentrations, without adjusting the concentrations downward to account for the much longer indicated duration of exposure.

·      EPA justifies such an absurdly long averaging period, in part, by saying the GM WQC are based on the assumption of “steady state conditions” -- which is not borne out by data from any real-world beach water monitoring.   In fact, concentrations of indicator bacteria fluctuate widely over time and space, often by orders of magnitude.

The consequence of allowing averaging of levels of bacteria over an entire month is at any given moment, people could be swimming in water with bacterial levels that are hundreds, even thousands of times higher than the concentrations of the GM criteria.    (You can “do the math” on what this might mean in terms of the risk of getting sick.) 

“But”, you say, “That’s not a realistic scenario because the beach will be closed, or at least posted, if indicator bacterial levels go above 3-times that associated with a minimum of a 1 in 28 risk of illness.”  WRONG!!   Why?  Because, few, if any beaches are monitored hourly, or even daily.   In fact, EPA recommends that water at heavily-used coastal beaches be monitored once a week.  The vast majority of surface waters that are used for swimming don’t even get monitored once a month.

THAT’S WHERE THINGS CURRENTLY STAND.  HERE’S WHAT EPA IS NOW PROPOSING…

Increasing the allowed duration/averaging period for the GM WQC from 30 days to 90 days

·      With no corresponding decrease in the concentration

·      Weakening beach warning/closing policy  

This will also de-list already impaired waters on the 303d list, or with a TMDL.  The statistical manipulation of data will allow the waterways to still be contaminated by bacteria even though they will become de-listed.