National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist, Dr. Brian Stacy, said that the death of the turtles around the Gulf of Mexico has not taken place due to the devastating oil spill. It was rather, resultant of their entrapment in shrimp nets.

Dr. Stacy, who is a veterinary pathologist who specializes in reptiles, said that the turtles found dead following the spill, suffered sedimentations within their lungs or airways, which implies that they were jammed in nets and later sunk.

“The only plausible scenario where you would have high numbers of animals forcibly submerged would be fishery interaction”, he said.

Although, the number of dead turtles has surged this year against the previous year’s figures, NOAA argued that the oil spill cannot be accused for it entirely.

The scientists claimed that Shrimp boats pose a severe threat on the floating of these turtles in the sea. These boats carry underwater nets for prolonged journeys. The turtles get entrapped in these nets and feel suffocated. The Shrimpers must carry extruder hardware which can enable the turtles to move out from the nets easily.

The scientists have alarmed that these shrimpers violate the standards and fail in carrying the devices.