Endangered Sea Turtles to Be Killed in Research Lab Experiment

This spring, seven endangered green sea turtles in a University of British Columbia research lab will be killed in order to determine why turtles die when they get caught in trawl nets.

The turtles are at least 10 years old and have been involved in a university research project for the past decade. If the researchers don’t kill them, they could live to be 30. But Bill Milsom, head of the university’s zoology department, told the Vancouver Sun that the turtles must die to complete a study on diving depths, which will help determine how deep trawl fishing nets need to descend in the ocean to avoid catching — and killing — turtles.

So in other words, as Sarah King blogged on Greenpeace Canada, Milsom is saying "it is necessary to kill the turtles to help figure out how not to kill the turtles."

The plan was leaked by a UBC insider to Stop UBC Animal Research, a group campaigning to end experimentation on animals at the university. "At a time when there are all sorts of efforts to save these animals, and they're being hit by oil spills and beach development, UBC is killing them," Brian Vincent, the group’s spokesman, told the Vancouver Sun.

In the earliest stages of the research, small devices were implanted in the turtles’ skin that measured the impact of climate change. As the experimentation progressed, it became more and more invasive. The last step is subjecting the turtles to major surgery so the researchers can "understand why these animals have such high mortality when caught in trawl nets in warming oceans," Milsom said. Once the measurements are taken, the anesthesia will be increased to lethal levels, killing the turtles.

Change.org member Carin Zellerman has started a petition asking Stephen J. Toope, president of UBC, to spare the seven turtles' lives and release them to a sanctuary. After all, understanding why turtles have such a high mortality rate in trawl nets is pretty much a no-brainer.

"They drown as they are unable to surface to breathe," Zellerman writes. "If it's a matter of studying their physiology, this can be accomplished by obtaining tissue from (already) dead sea turtles. If it's a matter of understanding at what level trawl nets should be placed in order to prevent catching turtles, [these are] statistics that should be obtained directly from the fishermen using the trawl nets."

Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), which allow larger marine animals like turtles and sharks to be safely ejected from shrimp trawls, already exist and are required in the United States. King noted that if these devices aren’t working properly, "perhaps the continued use of gear type should be evaluated instead of the diving depth capability of the turtles."

It makes no sense to kill these endangered turtles in the name of research. Sign the petition telling the president of UBC to release the turtles to a sanctuary.

Photo credit: Will Pittenger