На побережье Пунта-Карретас нашли мертвую большеголовую черепаху: что стало причиной её гибели

A loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) was found dead on the coast in the Punta Carretas neighborhood (Montevideo). The turtle died “after becoming entangled in a fishing net,” Alejandro Fallabrino, director of the NGO Karumbé—an organization dedicated to nature conservation—told El País. The turtle was swept away by the current following strong winds along the coast in recent hours. Fallabrino explained that these turtles “die every day due to industrial and artisanal fishing.” Fallabrino noted that “March and April are the months of the year when many dead turtles appear as a result of industrial and artisanal fishing.” “Another issue is collisions with boats; we are finding turtles with broken shells,” he stated. In addition, the director of Karumbé stated that this situation “is caused by the traffic of ships traveling from the port of Montevideo to Buenos Aires.” “The nesting areas in Brazil are protected, so there are more and more turtles; the populations have increased. But with more turtles, there are also more ships and threats—that’s a complication,” he noted. A baby orca, approximately two meters long, was spotted by passersby and personnel from the Maldonado Port Authority near Stop 1 on Mansa Beach in Punta del Este this Sunday afternoon. Around noon, veterinarian and professor Natasha Eliopulos, who was leading the operation, confirmed to El País that the animal is suffering from severe pneumonia and will therefore be euthanized. “It breaks my heart. I came all the way from Montevideo with the intention of nudging her and guiding her back into the water,” Eliopulos lamented. When asked whether the animal’s stranding on the coast could have been caused by seismic prospecting, the expert said that “we don’t know.” For now, the team has consulted with the Department of Pathological Anatomy at the School of Veterinary Medicine, which is responsible for performing necropsies on this type of cetacean, to determine what caused this animal to stray from its pod. Eliopulos explained that this cetacean—a young male about two meters long—has a damaged tail fin, “the engine” that would allow it to return to the sea. “The idea is to stop it from continuing to swallow water, given how painful that is. We want to give it a dignified death,” she explained.