© Leigh Huckel / WWF-Aus
Original story at WWF
To celebrate World Turtle Day, WWF-Australia today announced a grant of $36,000 towards James Cook University’s turtle health research program.
WWF-Australia spokesperson Darren Grover said the grant will help some of the world’s best scientists to continue JCU’s critical work to save Australia’s iconic green turtle.
“Tragically, we don’t know a lot about marine turtles and it’s a race against time to find out more about what is going on,” Mr Grover said.
“We hope this funding will help turtles such as those featured in our recent documentary, Sending the Gungu Home, and those turtles suffering from the fibro-papilloma virus outbreak at Bowen.”
James Cook University’s Dr. Ellen Ariel said every dollar of funding is critical to the survival of the marine turtles of the Great Barrier Reef.
“With the funds from WWF-Australia, we are well on our way to creating a purpose-built research facility that will allow us to study the immune system of turtles,” Dr. Ariel said.
“We know far more about what causes disease in domesticated and commercially valued animals – and how to treat them - than we do about sea turtles. This is partly because turtles are wild animals and rarely come into contact with humans. And this makes it difficult to pinpoint the cause of their distress and how to address it.”
Reef HQ Aquarium, which works in a partnership on turtles with JCU and WWF-Australia, congratulated the researchers.
Reef HQ Aquarium Director Fred Nucifora said research is vital to understanding why turtles get sick and how to best treat their illnesses.
“While we know a lot about the ecology and biology of turtles, we don’t know a lot about the causes of their ailments and how best to treat them,” he said.
“Turtles across the Marine Park are benefitting from this great partnership between the team at Reef HQ Aquarium’s turtle hospital and researchers at JCU.”
WWF-Australia first launched its turtle research program back in 2010, which has helped researchers at JCU and Townsville’s Reef HQ to care for more than 130 injured and sick turtles.
Mr Grover said there are a number of threats to turtles on the Great Barrier Reef.
“These animals can live to well over 100 years, but they are dying much younger than that, because of a whole range of pressures, such as loss of sea grass feeding areas, issues with water pollution, disease, entanglement and fishing nets.”
Notes to editors:
WWF-Australia recently produced a documentary Sending the Gungu home. Gungu is the name for ‘salt water turtle.’ Filmed around Bowen and Townsville, it features local groups including James Cook University, Reef HQ, the Queens Action Group and the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation and Gudjuda Aboriginal Reference Group.
The film is now in the running to win the Aurora Short Film Festival viewer’s choice award. To watch the film, and vote, visit www.youtube.com/user/wwfaustralia and click on Sending the gungu home. Then, click on the link to the Aurora Short Film Festival website to vote.
WWF-Australia contact:
Danielle Ryan, Media Officer, 0402 355 609, dryan@wwf.org.au
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