Juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the effluent discharge channel of a steel plant, Espírito Santo, Brazil, 2000–2006

This study, carried out from August 2000 to July 2006, began out of the recognition of a special ecological situation, when an aggregation of juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) was found inside the effluent discharge channel of a steel plant located near Vitória, the State of Espírito Santo cap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010-03, Vol.90 (2), p.233-246
Main Authors: Torezani, Evelise, Baptistotte, Cecília, Mendes, Sérgio L., Barata, Paulo C.R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Aquatic reptiles
Autoecology
Biological and medical sciences
Brazil
Chelonia mydas
Cheloniidae
Data collection
Demography
fibropapillomatosis
Field study
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
growth
health
Mammalia
Marine
Measurement techniques
Reptiles & amphibians
residency
Sea water ecosystems
Synecology
TAMAR
Tumors
tumours
Turtles
Vertebrata
Wastewater discharges
Wildlife conservation
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Summary:This study, carried out from August 2000 to July 2006, began out of the recognition of a special ecological situation, when an aggregation of juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) was found inside the effluent discharge channel of a steel plant located near Vitória, the State of Espírito Santo capital, eastern Brazil. The green turtles were captured through either cast nets or a set net or by hand (one turtle was captured alive on one of the channel banks); after data collection, they were released back into the discharge channel. Information is here reported on the temporal pattern of occurrence, size-classes, residency, presence of tumours and growth rates of tumoured and non-tumoured green turtles in the study area. A total of 640 individual green turtles were captured in the six years; 448 of them were captured just once, and 192 were captured two or more times. Curved carapace length ranged between 25.2 and 77.5 cm. Among the captured green turtles, 59.1% were classified as being in normal body condition and without any tumours, 6.6% were either underweight or emaciated but without any tumours, and 34.4% had tumours, with different levels of the tumour severity score.
ISSN:0025-3154
1469-7769
DOI:10.1017/S0025315409990579