despite that, the spills affecting the wildlife in the region is still being felt. lisa sylvester is monitoring the growing number of sea turtles now being found. what is going on here, lisa? well, wolf, a total of 517 turtles have been found dead in louisiana, alabama, florida and mississippi, since the april 20th been spill. another 503 oil turtles have been rescued alive and rescue crews have been going out daily trying to save as many turtles as possible. the oil has stopped gushing, but parts of the gulf habitat are not safe for many sea turtles. scientists collect turtles affected by the gulf oil spill and the numbers are increasing. some of them are requiring more than one cleaning to get the oil off. reporter: and according to the deepwater horizon report, 236 visibly oiled turtles were
most concern, and there is an awful lot of methane going into the gulf, but just remember, think about the amount of water and do a quick calculation to see how many gallons of water are in a cubic mile at that depth. and lyle overton, from louisiana state university, thank you very much. thank you. and we are told that the wildlife is declining and disturbing number of turtles declining right now. mary snow is on the scene and working that part of the story. mary, what is being done to save the turtles? well, woolf, they are bringing them to rehabilitation centers in new orleans. it was one month ago today that it got its first oil-covered turtle and now the number is close to 80. they saw a big jump just this week. reporter: these are the success stories. oil turtles found in the gulf are being rehabilitated in this treatment center. we are the mash unit
the animals as quickly as they can. this is the area where the oil turtles come in to. get an initial exam. we clean them up on the boat very well. not bad. we ve collected 35 live oiled turtles to date. we then bring them into rehabilitation. take care of them long term. this was a 136 pound turtle when it came in. when will you do? we re doing regular exams to make sure all the oil is out of her system. when she s healthy and as normal as we think she will be we ll return them. most of these turtles are being flown to florida to be released in a clean environment. time is very bad for sea turtles. females are coming up to lay eggs. this is one of the turtles caught out on the water. what do you look fortin first couple of days? we re testing their blood. some of these turtles have come