Assessing Sea Turtles after Oil Spills, OR&R and Office of Protected Resource Scientists Discuss Research Needs

DECEMBER 9, 2019 — OR&R staff met with NOAA Veterinary Medical Officer Dr. Brian Stacy of the Office of Protected Resources in St. Petersburg, Florida, on November 21 to discuss research needs for strengthening injury assessments of sea turtles after oil spills.

Man in white coat holding an oiled turtle.

Dr. Brian Stacy, NOAA veterinarian, prepares to clean an oiled Kemp's ridley turtle. Veterinarians and scientists from NOAA, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and other partners working on animal rescue and rehabilitation efforts during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Image credit: NOAA/Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

The group reviewed the recently published Guidelines for Oil Spill Response and Natural Resource Damage Assessment: Sea Turtles and discussed options for improving exposure, injury and quantification of injured sea turtles, including the potential to use drones to collect baseline data on sea turtle density and abundance in areas most likely to have oil spills. Scenarios for conducting drills that focused on protected resources with co-trustees were also discussed.

For more information, contact Daniel.Hahn@noaa.gov, Kevin.Kirsch@noaa.gov or Tom.Brosnan@noaa.gov.

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Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2022 1:47pm PST