Researchers sea say turtles develop these tumors as a result of exposure to nitrogen in urban and farm runoff

Oct 1, 2014 14:12 GMT  ·  By

Before you read any further, I must insist that you have a look at the photo accompanying this article. Yup, that is a sea turtle, and yes, those bumps on its body are tumors. Deadly ones, to be more precise.

Mind you, the turtle in this photo did not develop those ugly-looking abnormal tissue growths because it smoked too much or failed to exercise as often as it should have. On the contrary, the tumors were caused by exposure to pollution.

In a recent paper in the journal PeerJ, researchers with Duke University in the US say that, according to evidence at hand, tumors are quite common among green turtles swimming in Hawaiian waters.

The tumor-forming disease killing these marine creatures is named fibropapillomatosis and scientists say that, as far as they can tell, it is caused by exposure to nitrogen originating from urban and farm runoff.

As detailed in the journal PeerJ, the nitrogen works its way into the algae that Hawaiian green turtles feed on. This means that, when enjoying breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the animals ingest this compound.

In time, this habit of snacking on algae tainted with nitrogen causes the turtles to the develop tumors on their eyes, their flippers, and even on their internal organs. Too often, the tumors prove deadly.

What worries researchers is that, all things considered, it might be that other marine creatures are affected by nitrogen pollution in a similar manner.

Hence, they recommend that further investigations be carried out and that efforts be made to better understand how urban and farm runoff are altering local marine ecosystems.

“It's not just green turtles, but fish and coral reefs that have similar diseases in these locations,” specialist Kyle Van Houtan said in a statement.

“If research continues to support this hypothesis, we probably need to reconsider our current ways of managing coastal nutrients,” the researcher went on to explain.