Posts Tagged ‘Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary’

Yikes! 11-Foot Blue Shark in Wellfleet Bay

Saturday, October 25th, 2008

Male Blue Shark (Prionace glauca) in Wellfleet Bay

Holy mackerel!  Has Jaws wandered into paradise?  Who will save the children?  Who will save the turtles?  Where is Quinn when you really need him?

Amazing Find on the Tidal Flats off Lieutenant Island

Not often does a large pelagic shark find its way into the shallows of Wellfleet Bay.  They prefer the deep, cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean.  On a few occasions in fall, Don has encountered basking sharks scooping plankton from high tide flooded creeks and coves within the Wellfleet Bay estuarine system.  But an 11-foot blue shark is a surprising find on the tidal flats off Lieutenant Island.  Yes, Virginia, the very same tidal flats where kids from four to one hundred four play all summer long, and much more importantly, where we all go wading in chest-high water for terrapins.  Kind-a gives you goose bumps down your spine, doesn’t it?  No doubt we’ll add another risk waiver form for interns and volunteers for the 2009 research season.

Sue Wieber Nourse Provides Sizing Perspective

Sue, proudly sporting her Williams sweatshirt, provides sizing perspective for the leviathan.   This male shark measured 3.37 meters (almost precisely 11 feet) from the point of his snout to the trailing tip of his caudal fin.  The fork length (snout to center of caudal fin fork) was about 8.5 feet.  And, yes, the more scientific length is the fork length measurement, but the 11-foot shark headline reads so much more impressively than an 8.5-foot shark. 

The dorsal fin rose 28 centimeters (11 inches) above his back. 

We had no scale nor a means to get one to the scene.  The only estimate of weight comes from Don Lewis as he moved the critter for various measurements and then for the necropsy.  His back suggests a weight in the range of 250+ pounds, supported by estimated shark length-to-weight charts.

Click Here to View Video in High Quality

Blue Shark from Tooth to Tail

What an extraordinary opportunity to examine such an apex predator at close quarters!  October’s low sun angle enhanced the shark’s blue hue, casting long, deep shadows that magnified his powerful form.  These signal moments spark heightened excitement for humans when adrenaline spikes as you approach animals that can actually eat you.  “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”  No question; you can add blue sharks to that mantra as they are listed among the top ten “world’s most dangerous sharks.”

You appreciate the animal’s lethal power as you take measurements, none more impressive than teeth size, mouth width and gape.  Once adrenaline levels subside, a feeling of sadness and a sense of loss rise.  The unexpected death of such a magnificent creature that fills a critical niche in the ocean ecosystem is disconcerting.  We hope that a quick in situ necropsy might provide a clue to this blue shark’s demise.

Bob Prescott & Brad Timm Observe as Don Lewis Prepares for Necropsy

Since “Quinn” is long gone and Greg Skomal wasn’t in town, we did the best we could without a shark expert on hand.  Between Bob Prescott (Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary director), Sue Wieber Nourse (Jaeger Chair for Marine Studies at Tabor), Brad Timm (UMass Amherst) and Don Lewis (Turtle Guy), we managed a quick examination of the blue shark’s internals.  The animal was extremely fresh.

Powerful Blue Shark with Wellfleet Bay in Background

In summary, we found no smoking gun.  No identifiable premortem injuries or abrasions. Lots of parasites in and on the liver, in the stomach and in other cavities.  Nothing else in the stomach except for a few remnant fish eye lenses and nothing else we could detect within the gastro-intestinal tract.  The GI sysem was largely devoid of food.  We collected samples of parasites, liver tissue and tissue from beneath the dorsal fin.  We have no conjecture beyond mere guesswork about the cause of death.

Open Wide and Say, “Ah”

First Cold-Stunned Sea Turtle of 2008 Rescued

Friday, October 24th, 2008

The Cape Cod Times, “Kemp’s Ridley Turtle Found Stranded,” reports this morning, “The first cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley [sea] turtle of the stranding season was rescued in local waters yesterday [October 23rd], according to the Massachusetts Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.”  Bob Prescott, director of the sanctuary, noted that the turtle weighed about 8 pounds and was estimated at around four years old.  It had an old boat propellor injury on its left front flipper that may have weakened the turtle and predisposed this animal to early cold-stunned stranding.

Cold-Stunned Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle (File Photograph)

Cold-stunned strandings of endangered sea turtles occur each fall in Cape Cod Bay.  These juvenile reptiles, usually two to five years old, become trapped by walls of cold ocean water within the warmer hook of Cape Cod during normal southward migration as temperatures drop early each fall.  When bay water plunges to around 50F, these turtles become cold-stunned, enter a stupor-like state and are tossed on the beach by sustained winds.

The earliest standed turtles, usually found in late October or early November, have the smallest mass, weighing in at five pounds or less.  As the season progresses, larger and larger animals succumb to cold-stunning and are tossed by autumn storms onto the beach.  Species include Kemp’s ridleys, green sea turtles and loggerheads, which are the more massive and usually the last ones to strand.  Occasionally, a hybrid or a hawksbill has been known to strand on Cape Cod beaches.  All strandings, with only an exception or two to prove the rule, occur on bayside beaches from Provincetown to Sandwich, with the greatest numbers found between Truro and Dennis.

Yesterday afternoon’s turtle was discoverd by beach walkers on Sandy Neck beach in Barnstable, brought to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary for stabilization, and then transported to New England Aquarium for medical treatment and rehabilitation.

Two-Year-Old Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Rescued from Chapin Beach, Dennis

You may recall that the Turtle Journal team rescued a small, pre-stunned Kemp’s Ridley at nearby Chapin Beach in Dennis on September 5th (see Saving a Critically Endangered Sea Turtle).

What to Do if You Find a Sea Turtle

Sea turtles are federally protected and cannot be legally handled without an appropriate license.  If you see a sea turtle in distress on the beach, NEVER return it to the water.  Move it above the high water mark, cover it with dry seaweed to prevent additional hypothermia, mark the spot with some gaudy flotsam and call Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at 508-349-2615 as soon as possible.  If your call comes “after hours,” you may leave a message on the sanctuary line or you can call the 24/7 turtle hot line at 508-274-5108 any time of the day or night.  The Turtle Journal team will answer your call and respond immediately to rescue the animal.

Sad Tale of Three Dead Leatherback Sea Turtles

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Leviathans of the sea and giants of the reptile family, leatherback sea turtles define the term superlative.  Ranging in weight up to a ton and the size of a small Volkswagen, no one who has encountered one of these living relics in the wild comes away from the experience unchanged.  They are simply magnificent beasts that peacefully ply the world’s oceans in search of slurpy jellyfish.  The open mouth of a leatherback sea turtle (see below) is perfectly configured for this quest and is the last thing that a jellyfish senses before the lights go out.

Mouth of 650+ Pound Male Leatherback Sea Turtle

Unfortunately, we humans offer them a complex series of lethal obstacles to avoid during their peaceful voyages.  Gill nets drown them, longlines hook them, propellers slice them, weirs trap them and lobster buoys entangle them.  Especially during the summer months in Cape Cod and Buzzards Bays as they chase plentiful jellyfish, endangered leatherbacks face a host of potential threats.

Male Leatherback Arrives at Wellfleet Sanctuary for Necropsy

A freshly dead 650+ pound male leatherback beached in Provincetown on Sunday and Mass Audubon’s Bob Prescott, the state sea turtle stranding coordinator, conducted a necropsy at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to determine the cause of death and to gather scientific information to help us conserve this endangered species.  In addition to his staff, Bob (with large caliper below) was assisted by Kara Dodge, a PhD candidate at UNH and former NOAA sea turtle coordinator, and the Turtle Journal team.

Bob Prescott (Calipers), Don Lewis (Camera) and Kara Dodge (Scalpel)

Too large for normal scales, the mass of leatherbacks is determined by weighing the Mass Audubon pickup truck at the dump with the turtle inside, and then re-weighing the truck without the turtle.  The post revealed that this animal had been very healthy.  “It had everything going for it,” stated Bob and Kara.  Both flippers showed signs of a recent entanglement, but nothing so severe that these wounds would have caused death.  Instead, the cause of death was determined to be drowning.  The likely scenario for the death of such an inherently healthy animal is that it got entangled in a buoy line with both flippers wrapped in the rope and perhaps its body trunk as well.  With the last series of spring tides, the turtle may not have had sufficient line to reach the surface.  Like all turtles, leatherbacks are air breathers and will drown if held under water for a sustained period.  How this drowned animal had then become disentangled from the lines that had been wrapped tightly around its flippers is merely a matter of conjecture.

This evening we received a call from Bob Prescott that there had been a report of a dead leatherback on a Westport beach near Horseneck.  We drove out to the site and after about 30 minutes of searching, we discovered a badly decomposed and deflated leatherback sea turtle.  Talking to a local resident, we learned it had been bouncing along the beach for at least the last three days.  We estimated the carapace at approximately 161.3 centimeters, but decomposition and deflation may have altered any accurate rendering of its precise size.  Bones were exposed throughout from head to back to flippers.

Decomposed Leatherback Sea Turtle in Wesport, MA

Another decomposed, 600 pound leatherback washed ashore at Pico Beach in Mattapoisett Saturday night (http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080909/NEWS/809090352/-1/NEWS).  Dealing with one dead leatherback is serious as population numbers of this critically endangered species continue to plummet.  Finding two dead leatherback carcasses in a weekend is a tragedy; but three dead leatherbacks fall beyond emotions and words.  Yet, a ray of turtle hope winked through the afternoon when a call came into the Hotline.  A woman found a small 1/2 dollar size turtle in Plymouth, Massachusetts as kids were placing it in the ocean and the animal was being forced back to the shore by wave action and its own volition.  She thought she had discovered a baby sea turtle, or perhaps a diamondback terrapin hatchling.  A few questions cleared up the mystery.  Color?  Dark, almost black.  Long tail?  Yes, very long.  Bump along the tail?  Yes, like an ancient dinosaur.  Jagged edge along rear of carapace (top shell)?  Yep.  Does it have a yellow “button” in the middle of its tummy?  Yes.  Congratulations!  You are the proud holder of a snapping turtle hatchling.  With just a few more questions we discovered the local fresh water source from whence the hatchling probably came, either through its own design or more likely with the help of local kids.

Snapping Turtle Hatchling

You’re right.  Snapping turtles aren’t endangered and they’re not leatherbacks.  But that doesn’t diminish the joy in helping a hatchling find hospitable habitat where it might have a fighting chance of survival.  Saving one turtle … even a snapper … isn’t a bad way to close the day.

Saving a Critically Endangered Sea Turtle

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Nature’s Classroom Teachers Find Endangered Sea Turtle

In keeping with the theme of this web site, “Saving the World One Turtle at a Time,” opportunity came knocking across the ether at 11:30 this morning.  Five teachers from Nature’s Classroom (http://www.naturesclassroom.org/Yarmouth.htm) had traveled to Chapin Beach in Dennis for field orientation on the last day before school resumes next week.  They spotted an apparently lethargic “sea turtle” in a shallow tidal pool.  While most folks would have walked on by figuring that the incoming tide would handle the situation, or while someone else might have made the absolutely wrong choice of tossing the turtle into the sea to fend for itself, the Nature’s Classroom teachers took action.  They called the sea turtle stranding center at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary (508-349-2615) to report the sighting.  The sanctuary called us and the game was afoot. 

Speaking over cell phone with the teachers, we learned that they had a fairly good handle on what constituted a sea turtle, but they were unsure of its species.  We asked that they remain with the animal while we sped to their location … about a 45 minute drive.  As we reached Chapin Beach, the tide was flooding across the tidal flats with a vengeance.  Two teachers were “escorting” the sea turtle in the shallows between sandbars.  A brief look was enough to identify the animal as a Kemp’s ridley, one of the rarest and most critically endangered sea turtles in the world.  By size we could estimate its age at two to two and a half years old.  In other words, this animal was the typical juvenile sea turtle that we find cold-stunned on Cape Cod beaches from late October to December.  But the cold-stunning season is still six or seven weeks in the future.
 
 
Don Lewis Holds Rescued Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle
 
En route to the beach, we had alerted the New England Aquarium that we were responding to this potential sea turtle stranding.  Now we called them back with the species identification and our assessment of the animal’s condition.  There were early indications, beyond its lethargic behavior when first observed by the teachers, of the potential for future cold-stunning.  The right rear quadrant of its carapace was covered with brown algae; algae was also beginning to form on the rear of the turtle’s plastron.  There was a coating of algae on the top of the animal’s head and some algae buildup on the trailing edge of both front flippers.  There were a few dings on the keel as though it had been wave-tossed against a rock groin or breakwater.  When we observe turtles of this size during the outset of the cold-stunning season, we see the same, but much more extensive, indicators.  At least by the time we arrived on the scene, this sea turtle had become quite strong and active.

Rescued Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle (Story in Video)

In conversations with the aquarium and by proxy with NOAA, we weighed three options: immediate release on site, medical examination at New England Aquarium, or immediate release on the southern side of Cape Cod into Nantucket Sound … so that it wouldn’t get trapped by cold waters within the bay and become hypothermic and cold-stun a month of so hence.  Based on our field assessment, the decision was made for us to release the animal into Nantucket Sound from a southern Cape Cod beach. 

We crated the sea turtle for transport in our Element.  (Thank the gods of science that field researchers always come equipped for field emergencies!)  We began the trek across the Cape with a short stop to visit with our friend & colleague Kara Dodge, currently a PhD candidate at UNH and formerly a NOAA sea turtle coordinator.  She had flipper and PIT tags to append and to insert, and it gave us a nice quiet space to acquire the morphometric information we always document for sea turtles found in Cape Cod Bay.
 
 
Don Lewis Reads Caliper and Kara Dodge Records Data
 
Next we rendezvoused at the beach with a photographer from the Cape Cod Times whom we had alerted while driving from Dennis.  With sea turtle stranding season only a few weeks in the future, we didn’t want to miss this opportunity to use a photo-op to make people aware of what’s coming and what they should do and who they should contact.  By 3:15 in the afternoon we had released this fully charged sea turtle into the sound.  When we let it go into the oncoming surf, the turtle exploded forward like a hotrod leaving salt spray rather than rubber as it accelerated from zero to sixty faster than you could say, “Kemp’s ridley.”
 
 
Release of Rescued Kemp’s Ridley into Nantucket Sound
 
Finding a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle in Cape Cod Bay other than on the beach during the cold-stunning season is an extremely rare event.  There has only been one other such happening several years ago of which I am personally aware.  In that case the decision was made to tag it and release it back into Cape Cod Bay with an extremely unsatisfactory outcome a month or so later.  This time we maximized the odds that one of the most critically endangered species would have one more juvenile turtle to grow into adulthood and help restore its population.  We hope to see this turtle’s flipper tags or detect its PIT tag on a nesting beach in Rancho Nuevo, Mexico in another 15 or 20 years.  Or at least we hope that our successors in turtle conservation will see the fruit of today’s adventure in a couple of decades.  (ASIDE:  We’ve always considered it a bit unfair that sea turtles outlive sea turtle researchers.)
 
A hearty bravo to Nature’s Classroom without whose intelligent action this morning, nothing good would have come of today’s event.  And thanks also to a team of dedicated volunteers and professionals from Mass Audubon, the New England Aquarium, UNH and NOAA who responded to the challenge, made the best decision for the animal’s survival and flawless executed its impromptu rescue and release.  And that’s how we intend to save the world:  one turtle at a time.
 
 
Don Lewis Releases Endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle