Chennai: An unlikely item is saving sea turtles that are rescued from oil spills. According to reports mayonnaise is being fed to rescued turtles as medicine since it is found to be a safe non-toxic effective method in clearing the guts of tar-laden turtles. An oil spill that has occurred about 50 kilometre offshore likely in early February has coated most of Israels 195 kilometers of Mediterranean coastline with sticky tar. The hundreds of tons of oil from an oil tanker pose a particularly serious threat to sea turtles since they breathe and eat at the waters surface and their trachea is fully blotted with tar. National Sea Turtle Rescue Center run by Israels Nature and Parks Authority was able to transport 11 endangered green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) to Michmoret north of Tel Aviv for medical treatment. “We continue to feed them substances like mayonnaise which practically clean the system and break down the tar” Guy Ivgy a medical assistant at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center in Michmoret north of Tel Aviv said. However the recovery process is slow that is expected to take a couple of weeks after which the turtles would be sent back to their natural habitat. Thousands of cleaning workers and volunteers are engaged in removing tar from Israels beaches which may take several months. The Environmental Protection Ministry has already begun looking into the cause of the oil spill.

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