Mutant turtles discovered in contaminated Aussie waterways found to be 'slowly dying'
PFAS concentrations were detected up to 30 times higher than normal in the blood and organs of the turtles, which were found to have deformities.
First dolphins, then humans, and now reptiles. PFAS forever chemicals have been found in freshwater turtle populations in northern Australia, causing “major health impacts” for the animals.
The cartoon series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles popularised the legend that toxic chemicals could transform simple reptiles into crime-fighting superheroes. But new research from the CSIRO and Queensland Department of Environment has revealed a grim reality — juvenile turtles are dying before they reach adulthood at contaminated sites.
Lead research author Dr David Beale told Yahoo News there were “obvious” numbers of dead turtles wherever PFAS concentrations were at their highest, and the shells of hatchling turtles were deformed.
“Part of our ongoing research is now to understand what's happening to these hatchlings once they emerge. Are they becoming easy prey items because of the sort of defects that they're born with, or is it something a little bit more similar, in that they’re slowly dying as a result,” he said.
Cancers linked to PFAS contamination
The results were released on Monday following a three-year investigation, which centred around the direct impacts of PFAS on wildlife. Blood samples were taken from 350 turtles and then checks were made across 30 biochemical markers to create an overall picture of their health.
“For the untrained person, it looked like a healthy ecosystem. But it wasn't until we really dived into the health side that we got a real deep understanding of what was going on biologically,” Beale said.
“The adults had a whole range of biomarkers that were indicative of cancers, tumours and a whole range of metabolic problems. This included the high potential of forming gout, which in a turtle is quite deadly because they can't move freely to forage for food.”
PFAS passed from mothers to babies
PFAS don’t break down in water, oil, or heat and are found in a range of everyday items like non-stick cookware, food packaging, clothing, cosmetics and firefighting foam. They are referred to as forever chemicals because they don’t break down in the environment or in bodies.
The research tracked high concentrations of PFAS flowing through the adult turtles, into the ovaries of mothers, then into their young.
“As result of PFAS going into the egg, we would see a depletion of nutrients and really important minerals that are vital for hatchling development during that incubation period,” Beale said.
“It was really quite stark when you look at the bioaccumulation, the transference from adult to egg to hatchling. Ultimately, when we modelled projections of what these populations will look like over time, we see that they're just steadily declining… and at some point they will collapse.”
Concern over high PFAS concentrations in traditional food source
Although Australia doesn’t manufacture PFAS, it’s been found in some NSW drinking water reservoirs, and dolphins in Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay were discovered to have the world’s highest concentrations in their bodies.
The turtle testing was completed in South East Queensland but the exact locations of the testing sites are yet to be released. The researchers also examined frogs and snakes, but it was turtles who had the most worryingly high levels of PFAS.
“The focus, and rightfully so, has been on the impact of humans and human populations. But we can't can't ignore the impact on wildlife, especially wildlife that is potentially used as a traditional food source by our Indigenous communities.
“There's a lot that we don't know about what these chemicals are doing. And a lot more research needs to be done.”
The results of the study were published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment.
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