Question

Shenita is doing sea turtle research along the east coast of florida and finds 10 female green sea turtles washed up on shore and very sick. there has been a recent red tide event along the east coast. she suspects the red tide has gotten into the plants the green sea turtles eat. she decides to have the sea turtles relocated to the mote marine lab in sarasota. previous studies indicate that removal from red tide contaminated water for at least 50 days and the use of the drug cholestyramine could help clear the toxin from the sea turtles bloodstream. after 2 months, shenita and the mote marine lab staff waved farewell to the healthy sea turtles as they released them back into the clear ocean water. based on the lab described above, what would be a correctly stated hypothesis for shenita's lab? select one:
a. if the water is dirty, then it would make the sea turtles die.
b. if the chemicals in the water made the sea turtles sick, then filtering the water would make them healthy.
c. if the algae made the sea turtles sick, then removal from the water and treatment would make them healthy.
d. if the sea turtles are in clear ocean water, then they should go to the mote marine lab.

Answer 1

C. If the algae made the sea turtles sick, then removal from the water and treatment would make them healthy.  
Looking at the description of the situation, Shenita hypothesized that sea turtles were affected by toxins from a recent red tide event. So she removed them from the contaminate environment and treated them with a drug to counteract the red tide toxins. And the way things turned out, her hypothesis looked correct. With that in mind, let's look at the options and pick the correct one.  
A. If the water is dirty, then it would make the sea turtles die. 
* This is a possibility, but it's rather generic and not specific to the situation Shenita observed. So this is a bad choice.   
B. If the chemicals in the water made the sea turtles sick, then filtering the water would make them healthy. 
* This is also true. But Shenita didn't do any water filtering and this doesn't apply to the observed situation. So another bad choice.   
C. If the algae made the sea turtles sick, then removal from the water and treatment would make them healthy. 
* This pretty much describes what happened. So this is the correct choice.  
D. If the sea turtles are in clear ocean water, then they should go to the mote marine lab. 
*This doesn't describe the situation, so it's a bad choice.