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Dead turtles from oil spill?

10 Oct 2020

  • Reports due this week
By Sarah Hannan The Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) is trying to determine if the carcasses of turtles and porpoises that were washed ashore on the coastline were a result of the recent MT New Diamond bunker oil spill. “We have added remarks to run tests on the porpoise carcasses to see whether there are traces of bunker oil ingestion in their respiratory tracts,” MEPA General Manager Dr. Terney Pradeep Kumara told The Sunday Morning on Friday (9), referring to the report from the post mortems. Over 10 carcasses of turtles and porpoises were washed ashore on the coastal belt from the west via the southern coast to the east over a span of one week. With the beaches having a heavy footfall, it had been the visitors who had alerted Coast Conservation Department (CCD) officials, who had in return informed the MEPA, the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), and the National Zoological Department in Dehiwala and alerted them regarding the incident to take necessary action. “We gathered the carcasses and sent it to the Zoological Department which will conduct the post-mortem procedures to identify the cause of deaths. In the meantime, we also lodged a complaint at the Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Police, should legal action be sought,” CCD officials said. The toxicology reports are due this week, according to the MEPA. MEPA General Manager Dr. Kumara said: “The cause of the deaths is still unknown and we are awaiting the report from the post-mortem examinations and can only come to a conclusion after the toxicology report is submitted. The carcasses are now at the lab and we would be getting the earliest of the reports by Tuesday (13).” The Sunday Morning also contacted DWC Director General Chandana Sooriyabandara to inquire as to whether it was common for turtles to succumb in such conditions. “Turtles and porpoises surface to take their breaths and especially in the case of turtles, this is a time that they come ashore to lay eggs. There is a probability that they were caught by fishing nets or were injured by the propellers of the trawler engines. However, we can only share the findings after the reports are submitted to the courts next week.” Both the MEPA and the DWC are awaiting the reports and the court decision on pronouncing the cause of deaths of these marine creatures, and should there be a correlation to the bunker oil spill that was caused by the MT New Diamond when it was held in the Sri Lankan territorial waters after it faced an accident last month, then these turtle and porpoise deaths would be added as evidence of marine environment pollution caused by the incident. When asked about the legal proceedings to claim the damages caused to the marine environment from the owners of the MT New Diamond and whether Sri Lanka will have to go to international courts for hearings, Dr. Kumara told The Sunday Morning: “The MT New Diamond has appointed two local legal representative agencies that are now representing them in court. They are handling the legal proceedings for the Captain of the MT New Diamond, who is held in custody and will also handle the claims case that we are filing for marine environment pollution.” The MEPA is currently working closely with the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) to conduct the routine sampling from the bunker oil spill site and will observe the changes in marine life behaviour for the next three years. NARA Environmental Studies Division Head K.W.S. Weerasekara, speaking to The Sunday Morning, noted that on Friday, they had collected another batch of water samples and had logged in the behavioural observations, which they are to share with the MEPA. “The water and bunker oil mixed water samples will be sent to the Government Analyst’s Department and to our very own laboratory for testing, for which the results will be issued in a span of about five working days,” Weerasekara explained.

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