Dead Turtle in the Bay

[solemandownunder]

Was out fishing around the Rous today....met up with Rob & Cliff, then moved on to go out the Rous channel to my fave spot.

Came across what I thought was an injured turtle close to the red channel marker.

In fact it was a dead turtle as it turns out ( tho that is only MY opinion, NOT a PROFESSIONAL ).....broken back....split from front to rear.

In the end, I call Fisheries, 13 2325....just in case it was still alive...GENERAL CALL CENTER, so it seems.

Sorry, no one can help you, but I will get the "ON CALL" fisheries person to call you back was the reply I received.....so left my details.

About 45 mins later I missed a call.......then I checked my messages.....

The message was from said "ON CALL" fisheries person.....

Message went as follows..... "Thank you for reporting a dead Turtle, we CANNOT help you, please call RSPCA on phone# such an such"



I am SURE that no-one really GIVES a flying fig.....even though we are ENCOURAGED to report injured marine life as we do injured animal life on land.

RSPCA.........just WHAT in the hell were THEY gunna do....given the circumstances

I guess the point of the excercise today is to not give a rats....bugger THEM M8....nuna my business.

Got me buggered but......ALL this talk about Marine Parks & their inhabitants, yet ONE person reports an incident......NO ONE wanna know about it

........I am left flabbergasted after this incident and now have NO FAITH whatsoever in the the powers that be.....when THEY preach Marine Care & Conservation, but have absolutely NO concern REALLY when an incident DOES occur.....WHAT, NO $$$$$$in it for you......AND a "I dont really care attitude"

I could now start with a tirade.....but I will use the same logic.....dont give a flying fig....

Ray.

[Moonlighter]

You were given the correct advice. The marine park is not administered by Fisheries, it is the responsibilitynof Qld Parks and Wildlife service.

This info is from Moreton Bay Marine Park website, the section covering how to report injured sea animals, turtles etc:

To report marine animal strandings* call the RSPCA Qld on 1300 ANIMAL (1300 264 625). A Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) officer in the relevant region will be contacted with your information and will determine the appropriate response. QPWS will not be able to attend to all reported cases.

* marine animal strandings of sick, injured or dead turtles, dolphin, dugongs or whales

QPWS will require the following information:

location (GPS coordinates if possible)
a description of what is wrong with the animal (e.g. stranded on beach, injuries, entangled in a net, injured)
a description of the animal (type of animal—dugong, turtle, whale, dolphin; condition; size and any identifying tags)
photos (if available)
your contact details.

Hope that helps.

ML

[Shark Poker]

Poor Turtle.
Luckily there a many still about.
And last month I went for a slow drive around the shallows off St Helena Island where I saw 3 baby turtles, about 1/3 of grown-up size. Plus a few fully grown turtles.
And a big school of almost legal to just legal bream, must have been 150 fish, swimming n water only a metre or so deep.

On a third positive note, my oldies spend a lot of time at jumpinpin, and regularly saw a pelican with a broken beak. They used to throw him a few fish which he happily accepted.
Then suddenly one day a zodiac with Sea World written on the sides comes flying out of the mangroves and captures the pelican, who works at Sea World now.

Now with the benefit of hindsight, you could have towed ol' Mr Turtle back into Manly Boat Harbour and placed him outside the Possum rangers HQ.
Cheers Ray,
Pauly

[liltuffy]

Ray, why "a tirade", man you need to chill out, you ran in to the public service. What were you expecting - a squadron of Blackhawks because you found a dead turtle ??

Seriously

[crikey macca]

maybe we should do a quick whip around and see if we can buy him a new shell

[Boat Hog]

maybe we should do a quick whip around and see if we can buy him a new shell

I'm not shelling out if he's dead ....

[MacDougall]

Might have been better off calling underwater world or something?

[bigjimg]

Might have been better off calling underwater world or something?

Or maybe Splinter,,,,, he could help.Jim

ps.ninja turtle with a splitting headache.

[Moonlighter]

On a more serious note fella's.....

Found out quite a lot about the Bay's turtles when i was working (for rec fishing interests) on the MB marine park rezoning a few years ago.

The vast majority of them that get hit by boats are already seriously ill with the "floating disease". Being sickly, slow and unable to dive, in that condition, they are unfortunately quite susceptible to boat strike.

But the good news is that the population has recovered remarkably well from the early days when there was a flourishing business in turtle soup based right here in the Bay. We saw graphs that also showed a strong recovery in numbers once TEDs were introduced on trawlers, in fact, the population was heading very strongly back to very solid levels by around 2005, which was the most up to date data available at the time.

Quite some years ago now the relevant marine parks agencies stopped doing routine autopsies on dead turtles, mainly because the causes were already quite well known - ingestion of plastic bags etc, floating disease, and similar. A number were also drowned, mostly in those cheap rectangular crab pots, due to the wide openings that allow them to get head and shoulders right inside. And some in lost/abandoned witches hat crab nets, the ones that are now banned.

So if the one Ray saw was dead, really, there was not much point reporting it to anyone. If it was still alive then it would have been worth informing them, but whether they would be able to help it if it was close to death is most unlikely.

Again, remember that the Marine Park zones have not been established for fisheries management purposes, so they have nothing to do with Fisheries. The benefits of green zones are fundamentally NOT about increasing fish numbers or making fish species more sustainable.

Marine Parks are run by the EPA in the old days, and Parks and Wildlife now. So they are the ones to report things like sick or injured wildlife (other than fish) to.

[honda900]

"Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service"

A serious contradiction in name.. and they still get paid..

Regards
Honda.

[WalrusLike]

Not sure I understand why you are ranting about a dead turtle....

Did you expect a medal, or a parade, or a formal autopsy?

My taxes have better things to do than follow up on dead critters dying of known hazards. I am glad they said thanks, but no thanks...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[honda900]

He didn't know if it was dead or not..

So a department specifically paid to deal with wildlife issues, basically couldn't give a rats, fairly typical.

Regards
Honda.

[bluefin59]

We where out at mud yesterday arvo about 1:30 and a fisheries boat came past us heading back to the river from over that way ,it was about 7 mt cabin boat with a large rear deck so maybe they ended up going out for a look for you ...Matt

[solemandownunder]

Oh well...a broad band of comments, thank you all for the input.

And NO M8...not after any medal or recognition....JUST action, but as it has kindly been explained, there are reasons for this.

Here are the pics I took as best I could.......

[solemandownunder]

We where out at mud yesterday arvo about 1:30 and a fisheries boat came past us heading back to the river from over that way ,it was about 7 mt cabin boat with a large rear deck so maybe they ended up going out for a look for you ...Matt

They may have Matt, who knows, but I phoned in around 8am, and at that time the turtle was just outside the red rous marker and drifting quickly S/W.

Although I was not asked, I would not have been able to supply gps co-ords as I dont have one yet.

It also occurred to me at the time that the turtle could have been construed to be a boating hazard, and this was also on my mind...AS I expressed to the operator at the time.

If not already found, I guess it will wash ashore somewhere in time.

Cheers, Ray.