PHOTOS: Saving turtles from oil and fire

A team of turtle experts works to recover the animals from clumps of sargassum seaweed, which are being caught in controlled burns to eliminate the oil.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A Kemp’s Ridley turtle swims out from under an oil patch. He was one of the unlucky turtles that got away.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

The turtles are facing the double threat: the oil and the flames from the “burn boxes.” “I won’t pretend to know which is the nastiest,” one researcher said.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Brian Stacy, left, a veterinarian with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Jennifer Muller of the University of Florida, recover an oiled turtle.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Blair Witherington, a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, helps in the rescue effort. “In a perfect world, they’d gather up the material and let us search it before they burned it,” he said.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Witherington, from left, with captain Kevin Aderhold and mate Jordan Ellis, heads out into the gulf on a rescue mission. “This is devastating,” said Aderhold, who has been taking a team of researchers deep into the gulf every day to rescue oiled sea turtles.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A patch of oil-soaked seaweed floats in the gulf. Normally noisy with birds and thick with crustaceans, small fish and sea turtles, the sargassum is now silent.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A loggerhead turtle avoids being netted by rescuers. He appeared to be in good condition so the team decided not to capture him.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A Kemp’s Ridley turtle sits still in a net, waiting to be cleaned and treated.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Researcher Blair Witherington wipes the sweat off his face after a rescue. “We’ve seen the oil covering the turtles so thick they could barely move, could hardly lift their heads,” he said.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)