Turtles???

[RAT-KING]

Hey fishers
was in the brissie river last night wen we seen a huuuge turtle dfit past which i thought was awesome!! Thinking it was smashing some of the millions of jelly fish! wen i suddenly thought if it was alright! Its shell was floating well above the surface! I didnt go closer to investigate i didn't want 2 bother it! Does anybody know if they cruise on the surface or maybe it may have bn sick or worse!
Cheers Simon

[Benno1]

i thought they only came to the surface to breath...did you see its head pop up???...was it moving its flippers???...how long did you watch it for???...did you inform Parks and Wildlife the next day???

Mrs Benno1

[Blackened]

G'day

Could have been really sick

But also I came within 3 or 4 meters of hitting a little guy at peel on the surface, doubled back and could have touched it. He was just sun baking, having a rest. Ever so slowly he turned his head, looked up at me as to say " you woke me up you basterd" and then just cruised off to the deep

Dave

[RAT-KING]

Thanks guys!
I watched it for around 2 mins it was dark and choppy so it was hard to see if it was moving! the thing that worries me was how far it was out of the water!
Cheers Simon

[Fish_gutz]

more than likely dead if it was that far out of the water, i`ve seen a few big dead ones floating up and down the river recently(might be same one just moving with the tide) I`ve also noted a lot of other turtles in the bay that look like they are dead only to turn around and take a closer look and they decide to swim of?
last winter while fishing scotts at redcliffe i noticed a disturbance on the surface and then later it was still there, as the sun got up i could see it was a big turtle caught in some line or rope but either way it couldn`t move and i couldn`t get to it using my oar or anchor line to try and free it so rang national parks and gave them the gps mark for it but was told they had no boats in the area that day and were to busy! Cheers Andrew

[Moonlighter]

Hi gang

From my involvement with MBAA, I am aware that some turtles in the bay suffer from a "floating" disease - in basic laymans terms, caused by eating plastic items that they mistake for jellyfish or seagrass - plastic bags, all sorts of stuff including waste dumped from cruise ships, naval vessels etc. Blocks up their guts, they get really sick and lethargic and fill with gas, can't dive.

I understand its pretty well 100% fatal, can only be saved with surgery.

I've seen info that leads me to conclude that many if not the majority of turtle deaths that are "attributed" to boat strike are turtles that are already in advacde stages of suffering from this floating disease. They apparently stopped doing autopsies a few years ago on boat strike victims when nearly all of them were shown to be almost dead from floating disaese before they were struck by the boats.

But it was convenient for the greenies to blame boaties rather than do more to stop this plastic waste getting into the bay (stormwater drains, ships etc as previously mentioned) in the first place.

By the way, dont ever let a greeny tell you that the bay's turtles population is declining and that even one or 2 killed by boats or fishing will be a disaster - just unmitigated garbage.

The populations of green and loggerhead (in particular) have been steadily and significantly increasing over the past 10-15 years and they are approaching numbers not seen for generations. Why? because TED's were introduced on trawlers and the taking of green turtles commercially (soup) stopped, and its taken a full generation for them to reach huge sizes for breeding and now the numbers are well and truly increasing again.

Grant

[tunaticer]

I saw a big dead floater in the mouth of the brissie river two weeks ago, motored over to see if it was alive and floating but it was well and truly dead. Pity the poor bugger that hit it at full noise in the river or bay.....its a stink bomb of immense proportions.

Jack.

[Slider]

I am wondering if some of these turtles that are floating, aren't resting after mating.
Green and loggerhead turtles begin mating in October and at Fraser between Ngkala and the cape, there is usually several turtles on the beach at first light every morning that are exhausted after mating. On tuesday, the 2 greens in the pic washed up still in mating embrace at Browns Rocks where I was fishing. The other pic is a resting green at North Ngkala yesterday morning.

lindsay