Day 8 - Turtle Necropsy (don’t look if squeamish!)

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This morning I got up ready to go to the Sulphur Springs with the girls but when I got out of bed I could hear people in the garden. I looked over the balcony to see Steph and Kate opening up a dead juvenile Green turtle. They’d been called out to rescue a leatherback stuck in a nest and managed to free him but the green had got caught under the leatherback and drowned. They removed the plastron and opened it to see the organs inside. They took samples of the heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, gallbladder, bladder, lungs, trachea, crop and stomach, small and large intestines. They found lots of Seagrass in the intestines, overall the turtle looked very healthy, there were signs of drowning (froth in lungs), only a couple of parasites but a few bits of micro plastics in the stomach. The samples were put in pots for Kate to take to the labs. The turtle was then buried in the garden. This afternoon I’ve got another nest excavation and got to clean the house 🏠. 






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