After the Thanksgiving holiday, we will know what killed off more than 60 young sea turtles found dead over four days beginning Nov. 20, most of them on Boca Chica Beach though a few on South Padre Island.
Will it be Mexican gillnet fishermen - as has been suspected on the U.S. side? Or will it turn out to be massive killoff as a result of chemicals that were carried by strong winds after a pressurization failure with SpaceX's Mk1 Starship prototype on Nov. 20, the same day the first dead turtles were found.
That incident, which resulted in the release of a large quantity of vapor and cryogenic liquid has been suspected to have caused some deaths, according to commenters on the Sea Turtle Inc. website.
More than 60 young green sea turtles have been found dead over four days beginning Nov. 20, most of them on Boca Chica Beach though a few on South Padre Island.
The dead turtles likely were between 2 and 6 years old, Jeff George, executive director of Sea Turtle Inc., told the Brownsville Herald.
The dead turtles likely were between 2 and 6 years old, Jeff George, executive director of Sea Turtle Inc., told the Brownsville Herald.
George said 8 freshly dead turtles were found Nov. 24 alone, for a total of 63 so far. Radio reports and social media posts from Mexico, meanwhile, indicate that many more were found washed up south of the Rio Grande, he said.
Federal and state authorities were notified immediately, he said. Late Sunday, a patrol from the U.S. Coast Guard SPI station discovered an abandoned gillnet — from a Mexican lancha fishing U.S. waters illegally — 200 yards north of the mouth of the Rio Grande, according to a USCG official.
Of eight turtles found entangled in the net, five were dead, according to the official, who said USCG is conducting daily patrols in the area since the discovery. He discounted that the SpaceX failure, which resulted in the release of a large quantity of vapor and cryogenic liquid, was likely to have caused the turtle deaths.
George said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has jurisdiction over sea turtles in the Gulf, is sending its top NOAA Fisheries veterinarian/sea turtle pathologist, Dr. Brian Stacy, to perform necropsies on the turtles to confirm cause of death. Stacy has necropsied thousands of sea turtles, George said.
However, because of Thanksgiving the necropsies might not be performed until next week, George said, noting that the turtles have been frozen to preserve the evidence. The necropsies can reveal causes of death related to chemicals, explosions, drowning (in a gillnet for instance) and other factors, he said.
“Given that the animal is fresh dead and frozen immediately, they’ll get a very good indicator as to what happened,” George said.
Green sea turtles are protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
SpaceX’s first full-scale Starship prototype – Mk1 – experienced a failure at its Boca Chica test site downwind from the beach. in southern Texas. The failure occurred late in the afternoon on Wednesday, midway through a test of the vehicle’s propellant tanks
The Mk1 Starship's first cyrogenic loading test, involved filling the methane and oxygen tanks with a cryogenic liquid.
During the test, the top bulkhead of the vehicle ruptured and was ejected away from the site, followed by a large cloud of vapors and cryogenic liquid from the tank.
The top bulkhead was seen landing nearby, but its precise location is unknown.
The bottom tank bulkhead appeared to fail as well. A second cloud of vapor appeared out of the base of the vehicle at the same time that the top ruptured – signaling that the entire internal tank structure may have failed.
15 comments:
Will soon see patrols of cyber trucks in this area courtesy of you know who.
Brownsville, SPI made their bed, now they sleep on it. Poor creatures, its just the name of the game. SMH.
Your source is a commentator on the turtle website? LOL..
Another Gloom & Doom posting. Good grief, Montoya, get a grip already. Why not go ask and then post facts instead of couch conjecture and happy hour speculation?
Now it's time for the legal teams to look into cancelling the SpaceX authority to operate at Boca Chica beach for non compliance etc.
A lawsuit could recover the money needed to repair damage to wild brush and investigate what other damage was done to ducks, jack rabbits, bugs etc.
SpaceX Rocket Base to Be Built Near Endangered Sea Turtle Nesting Beach
Can rockets and endangered species co-exist?
By Melissa Gaskill on September 8, 2014
Without such actions, the Environmental Impact Statement prepared for the Texas facility by the USFWS anticipates that a maximum of 91 nesting sea turtles could be killed or harmed.
According to a company spokesperson, SpaceX is not commenting on the environmental impact of the Boca Chica facility beyond what is in the Environmental Impact Statement, Record of Decision and the USFWS Biological and Conference Opinion
Isn't it worth it? Some dead turtles for all those local high paying SpaceX jobs!
Take them to the "rescue viewing stadium" where you can view turtles being "FRIED" and change the name to "sea turtles rescue facility" and save them from spacex flames and poisonous fumes.
WE ALL KNEW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN EXCEPT our SELF-SERVING ELECTED OFFICIALS!
We need to re-elect them again and again until this area turns into a poisonous desert.
Desert:
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life and humans. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation. Wikipedia
Show us the beef how many persons have they hired and making over 50k a year? The only local personnel I see is the local cops, sheriff's deputies and the skunks paroling the area, they should sent a k-9 unit to inspect the place.
PORT NECHES, Texas (AP) — A plant that produces chemical and petroleum-based products in East Texas has exploded, blowing out windows on homes several miles away.
First the turtles are we next???
SpaceX sucks but they didn't do this. Give it a little thought--- the wind was blowing out of the southeast at over 30 mph the day that rocket or whatever it is blew up. So any residue from the explosion would have gone northwest over South Bay and the Laguna Madre, not into the Gulf where the sea turtle die-off happened. Also, it is unlikely that contamination would have only sickened of killed sea turtles yet there were no fish kills reported. Of course, sea turtles breath air from the atmosphere, unlike fish, and so do dolphins yet there was no dolphin mortality reported, not even in the Laguna were any chemicals would have drifted.
There is enough real stuff wrong out there and enough horrible potential that fake stuff doesn't have to be made up. And this reporting of fake stuff just takes away from the real issues and will only serve to water it done when something does happen. Don't cry "wolf".
Cryogenic liquids are gasses, normally inert, that are cooled to around-130F. In the case of SpaceX, it was probably liquid nitrogen or liquid oxygen (both of which are what we breathe everyday).
I wouldn't say that its impossible for 63 turtles to be on the beach within the path of the cold gasses, but it seems unlikely and they all would have been found on the beach dead. Also, these gasses would have had no effect on the turtles in the ocean.
Man accused of butchering sea turtles
Are they going to arrest pot head if found that the dead turtles found are his fault???
Fue la rocket que se degracio y hecho las chemicas en Boca Chica. Let's see what happens to the people at the Polish community. Sue the hell out of Musk if you get sick.
Happy Thanksgiving Maggots!
Post a Comment