Article Review: What's Causing Sea Turtles?
In an article from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Researchers investigate how chemical pollution is affecting the health of the endangered species,
Chelonia Mydas, due to fibropapillomatosis. To conduct this experiment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collected samples of plasma from 43
Chelonia Mydas turtles. The plasma samples taken were to analyze the Polychlorinated biphenyl concentration in each turtle depending on the sex and age to and to compare it to the amount of tumors on the turtles. After conducting the experiment, Researchers found that the female green turtles had significantly lower PCB concentration in their plasma with a concentration mean of 0.43 ng/mL. They hypothesized that the females had a lower PCB concentration because they could possibly be transferring some of the PCB off to their offspring or they simply reduce the amount of food that they are eating during nesting. Concluding the experiment, they found that the amount of chemical pollutant concentration that the turtles absorbed had a negative correlation to their carapace length, but that there was an increase of PCB concentration in turtles with a significant amount of tumors.
The research findings of this essay is important, because it proves that changes need to be made in keeping our oceans clean by reducing the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls that we utilize. Sea turtles, specifically the
Chelonia Mydas, species are suffering at the hands of humanity and with this information we know exactly how we can prevent them from dying out due to fabropapillomatosis. I found this article very interesting, because I have heard about several species of sea turtles obtaining large tumors over their necks and heads, but I had no idea why this was occurring.
Works Cited:
Yan, Muting, et al. “The Risk of Polychlorinated Biphenyls Facilitating Tumors in Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia Mydas).” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH, vol. 15, no. 6. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3390/ijerph15061243. Accessed 23 Apr. 2019.
Photo Courtesy of ResearchGate.net
2 comments:
Thank you for sharing this information. Sea turtles have become so associated with plastic wastes that I did not even consider the impacts of other wastes of which we dispose improperly.
Interesting but sad article, especially since PCBs linger in the environment. What is the source of these PCBs, and what are the prospects for getting rid of them? Do the fibropapillomas kill the turtles?
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