Dr. Brian Stacy handles an oiled Kemp's ridley turtle in the Gulf of Mexico. (NOAA Photo)

MTSG member and veterinarian with the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Brian Stacy is featured in a New York Times article today covering the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and its impacts to marine turtles and other wildlife.  Dr. Stacy is among those who have been conducting autopsies on stranded turtles found since the Deepwater Horizon oil leak began in April. The article does a great job of summarizing the situation for sea turtles in the Gulf as well as highlighting the various forensic techniques that are used by scientists to understand causes of animal mortality. Read the full story over at the New York Times website.

To learn more about necropsy and tissue sampling techniques for marine turtles, check out the article by Elliot Jacobson in Chapter 6 of the MTSG publication, Research and Management Techniques for the Conservation of Sea Turtles.