Posts Tagged ‘Cape Cod Canal’

Rescuing a Crabby Hermit (While Others Chase a Mermaid Manatee)

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

The Turtle Journal team ventured to Dennis today to document the wayward manatee that has somehow wandered from Florida up the Atlantic Coast and through Cape Cod Canal to become trapped by cold bay water in picturesque Sesuit Harbor near the biceps of Cape Cod.  We arrived about ten minutes too late to spy the manatee which had headed higher upstream to avoid the rush of chilly bay water flushed into Sesuit Harbor with the rising tide.  The story from the harbormaster says that a special C-130 is winging its way to the Cape and a team will “rescue” the manatee this weekend, so it can be transported back to sunny Florida.  We also learned that special food had been dispatched and would arrive anon to add more zest to this warm water creature stuck in Cape Cod fall.  News crews had flocked to this tiny hamlet to tell the tale of a Great Manatee Rescue.  The following YouTube piece appeared on Cape Cod Times on-line.

Manatee in Sesuit Harbor in Dennis on Cape Cod

Given a doe-eyed sea cow in the area, it’s not an easy task to pitch the rescue of a crabby hermit.  Mon dieu!  No one ever accused a flat-clawed hermit crab (Pagurus pollicaris) of the crime of cuteness.  Who cares whether such a shiftless critter that scavenges its own home survives?  Well, the answer to that question is the Turtle Journal cares, especially if we can get good footage.

Flat-Clawed Hermit Crab in Fractured Whelk Shell

We happened across this hermit crab, the lone survivor of a predatory seagull that had been slurping crabs from their adopted homes in whelk shells.  A scattering of empty shells lay among the rocky shore of Silvershell Beach off Sippican Harbor.  This one particular shell had been dropped from great height by the seagull, cracking the shell in multiple locations and exposing the crab to depredation.  Luckily for the crab, but not for the seagull, we arrived just in time to interrupt the process.  Unfortunately, its home was destroyed and the compressed shell had lodged the hermit crab so tightly that it couldn’t squirm out to find a new home.  But give a human a heavy rock and it can work miracles that even a seagull can’t accomplish!

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Meet the Crabby Hermit

Now that we had removed it from its fractured shell, we owed this crabby hermit a new home.  The seagull had left us two choices of whelk shells just about the same size as its former home.  Not being a crab ourselves, we placed the two whelk shells in the water equally distant from Crabby, but we nudged it a bit toward the shell on the left that seemed through a human eye the nicer home.  Wrong.

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Crabby Hermit Rejects the Human’s Favorite for a Home

Well, clearly even a crabby hermit has its standards and the home we had favored didn’t meet them.  Perhaps the whelk had too many slipper shells (Crepidula fornicata) that might irritate its tender abdomen as the hermit crab tucked its largeness into the tight quarters of its new prospective home.  Whatever the reason, our rescued hermit crab finally felt sufficiently comfortable with the second whelk shell to snuggle into its new home, protected once again from predators.

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Crabby Picks a New Home

Was it too much to ask for a simple thank you?  I guess so.  But then again, with a little anthropomorphic delusion, we can see Crabby waving its broad claw as its disappears under the rising tide.  Sure, it must have been waving.  Well, something was waving.  They don’t call them waves for nothing.  Do they?

Epilogue:  And the mermaid was rescued, too, on Saturday morning, October 11th, 2008 from Sesuit Harbor in Dennis, Cape Cod.  This animal sets the record of the furthest north that a manatee has ever been documented.  Oh, yes.  Dennis is a merman.

Manatee Rescued from Sesuit Harbor in Cape Cod Bay

Confronting Maggot Infestation in Wareham Turtle Garden

Saturday, September 13th, 2008

As we described earlier in the post, “Rescuing Live Hatchlings from Maggot Infested Nests,” fly maggots devastate threatened diamondback terrapin nests on the Outer Cape.  They devour tiny, vulnerable hatchlings as they break their eggshells in the secret darkness of their hidden underground nests.  When we encounter a nest infested with maggots, and after we suppress our disgust and repulsion, we aggressively excavate the egg chamber in order to save as many hatchlings as we can.

Terrapin Egg Completely Consumed by Fly Maggots

This Thursday we checked on a nest laid late last June in a new turtle garden off Broadmarsh River in Wareham, 60 miles from nests on the Outer Cape and on the other side of the Cape Cod Canal.  Still, once we penetrated the egg chamber the sand resembled an Indiana Jones movie scene with maggots playing the role of snakes.  “Maggots,” exclaims the Turtle Guy.  “Why does it have to be maggots?”

Maggots in Motion

We ignore the stench and dig quickly through the slithering sand to rescue eight live hatchlings among the devoured remains of eggs and embryos of seven might-have-been siblings. 

Eight Saved, Seven Depredated by Maggots

The rescued hatchlings appeared lethargic as though traumatized by the experience.  But after an overnight stay in clean, moist soil, and a leisurely bath in warm fresh water, they were eager for release into the wild.  That is, turtle eager which isn’t quite the same thing as mammal eager.

Hatchling Strolls through Wareham Turtle Garden

The background of the previous video clip shows the exquisite nesting habitat that was created by private homeowners abutting the nursery salt marsh of Wareham’s Broadmarsh River off Buzzards Bay.  At their own initiative and their own expense, the homeowners petitioned the Town of Wareham Conservation Commission for permission to create a perfect nesting habitat along a beach front that had become sand starved over the years and had lost all upland nesting potential.  These generous homeowners ordered 20 tons of perfectly matched beach sand to make a large nesting site at least 10 inches deep for terrapins to place their clutches.  Within a couple of weeks of completing this turtle garden, the first female terrapin had scratched and dug her nest.  In total, six nests were deposited in the new sandy turtle garden … all of which were protected by predator excluders.  As these new babies mature, they too will return to this turtle garden, ensuring a whole new generation of diamondback terrapins in Broadmarsh River; all thanks to an exceptional family who are dedicated to restoring the Wareham coastal ecosystem for future generations.