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Discovery of Endangered Kemp’s Ridley in Springtime Marsh of Outer Cape Cod

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

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Sue Wieber Nourse with Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle

Each year dozens of juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, one of the most endangered marine species in the world, get trapped in Cape Cod Bay and wash ashore cold stunned and near death in November and December.  Occasionally, a carcass gets trapped under ice or buried in salt marsh wrack, only to resurface in the spring thaw.

Sue Wieber Nourse Discovers Kemp’s Ridley Carcass

On March 18th, Sue Wieber Nourse of Turtle Journal spotted a Kemp’s ridley carcass in the salt marsh of the Fox Island Wildlife Management Area off Blackfish Creek in South Wellfleet on Outer Cape Cod.  The Turtle Journal team has been patrolling this Indian Neck salt marsh all winter because it had in the past yielded diamondback terrapins that had become trapped in lethal debris when returning to brumation in its salt marsh channels.  Luckily, this year we recorded no such deaths.

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Plastron of Kemp’s Ridley after Post Mortem Depredation

This juvenile Kemp’s ridley, estimated at approximately two years old, most likely emerged in 2007 from the beaches around Rancho Nuevo, Mexico.  Cold-stunned in Cape Cod Bay last November, it floated into the Blackfish Creek salt marsh system and became trapped in ice or thick wrack until the spring flood tides released it.  Predators had found this turtle as witnessed by the post mortem depredation of nearly every bit of soft tissue.

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Carapace of Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Carcass

The carapace (top shell) of the Kemp’s ridley measured approximately 22 cm straight line length.  We had to estimate the measurement because, as can be seen below, a large predator had gnawed the leading edge of the carapace.

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Post Mortem Depredation of Cold-Stunned Kemp’s Ridley

As with all sea turtles recovered on Cape Cod, we delivered the Kemp’s ridley carcass to Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary where Bob Prescott serves as the director and also doubles as the sea turtle rescue coordinator for the Commonwealth.

Don Lewis Releases Kemp’s Ridley into Nantucket Sound

To see a live Kemp’s ridley juvenile rescued from Cape Cod Bay and released into Nantucket Sound, see the Turtle Journal posting “Saving a Critically Endangered Sea Turtle” from September 2008.  The video clip above comes from that rescue.

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The Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner of Leviathans Returns to Buzzards Bay

Friday, March 19th, 2010

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Giant Leatherback Sea Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)

Each spring witnesses the return of leviathan leatherback sea turtles to Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.  These massive sea turtles, an anachronistic relic of prehistoric times and the most massive living repile on Planet Earth, are a globally listed endangered species.  Adults can reach more than 8 feet in length and 2000 pounds in weight.  According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “The leatherback is the largest, deepest diving, and most migratory and wide ranging of all sea turtles.”

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Lion’s Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata)

Leatherbacks achieve this massive size by feasting on a diet almost exclusively composed of jellyfish.  In Buzzards Bay, the attractive prey that entices leatherbacks to return each year is lion’s mane jellyfish.  So, each spring time the Turtle Journal team watches the shores of Buzzards Bay for the first appearance of a lion’s mane bloom, which presages the arrival of our favorite leviathans.

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 Lion’s Mane Jellyfish in Sippican Harbor

Today marked the first lion’s mane jellyfish that we have documented in Buzzards Bay this (pre-)spring.  We also recorded our first ctenophora (also called comb jellies) in Sippican Harbor yesterday.

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Lion’s Mane Jellfish

So, if jellyfish are the breakfast, lunch and dinner of leviathans, how are leatherback sea turtles configured to exploit this exclusive diet to gain such massive sizes?  Since jellyfish congregate in patches amidst vast empty distances of the oceans, how can leatherbacks take advantage of a good spot when it comes along in their pelagic journeys?

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Mouth of a 700-Pound Leatherback Sea Turtle

The enormous mouth and the esophagus are lined with long, downward pointing spikes.  For a jellyfish, and anything else that enters, the leatherback GI system is a one way journey: downward.  When a leatherback runs into a patch of jellyfish it gorges itself, filling its mouth, esophagus, stomach and intestines with a bulging mass of food.  Another interesting anatomical feature of the leatherback is its enormous liver which processes the generous supply of toxins that it consumes from its jellyfish prey.

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Lion’s Mane Jellyfish in Sippican Harbor

For the Turtle Journal team, the first sighting of lion’s mane jellyfish each year means that marine turtle season is fast approaching.  Welcome home, leatherbacks!  We’ve missed you all winter long.

Posted in Marine Species, Turtles | 1 Comment »

Spotted Turtle and Wood Frog Celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

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Female Spotted Turtle

Warm sunshine and Saint Patrick’s Day brought out the best in nature.  Turtle Journal visited the pond at Brainard Marsh on the South Coast of Massachusetts to see what might be stirring.  Sue Wieber Nourse found a mature female spotted turtle and a tiny spotted yearling basking on the moss covered banks of shallow Brainard Pond, and a fire red wood frog catching the late morning rays on the surface of the pond.

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Mature Female Spotted Turtle with Head Withdrawn

The mature female, caught unaware in the act of basking, withdrew her head inside her dark shell adorned with yellow spots.  The yearling spotted turtle was so camouflaged that it lay hidden in “plain sight.”   Once Sue recognized that the tiny leaf was actually a spotted yearling, she crept stealthily toward it.  When just within grasp of the tiny critter, it hopped like a spring-loaded frog from the bank into the pond in a single leap.

Mature Female Spotted Turtle in Brainard Marsh 

The short video clip documents the discovery and the release of the mature female spotted turtle at Brainard Marsh in Marion, Massachusetts on Saint Patrick’s Day. 

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Mature Female Spotted Turtle Carapace and Plastron 

 Spotted turtles are a real beauty!

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Wood Frog from Brainard Marsh Pond

Basking on the surface of Brainard Pond, a fire red wood frog caught Sue’s attention.  If you’ve never tried to capture a slippery frog in its own milieu, then you haven’t the slightest concept of the phrase “Mission Impossible.”  Undeterred, Sue plunged into the mucky water and snagged the wood frog in a swingle swoop.

Wood Frog Released Back into Brainard Pond

While wood frogs are reportedly plentiful in the Northeast, this one represents the first that Turtle Journal has identified on the South Coast of Massachusetts.

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Wood Frog

Spotted turtles and a gaudy wood frog … not a bad showing from nature for Saint Patrick’s Day.

Posted in Turtles, Wild Animals | 1 Comment »

Battered by Storms and Waves, Outer Cape Suffers Significant Erosion

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Waves Rumble Ashore at Wellfleet’s Newcomb Hollow Ocean Beach

Late February and early March storms battered Outer Cape Cod causing substantial waterfront erosion on both ocean and bay sides.  Under bright sunshine on Saturday, the remnants of these storms still endured with breakers crashing along the nearly 30 mile Great Back Beach.  Enormous gouges have been ripped out of the towering Atlantic coastal sand banks.

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Scalloped Erosion at South Terminus of Indian Neck Sea Wall

On the bayside, erosion has been equally destructive.  At the south edge of the Indian Neck sea wall, “scalloping” has cut deeply into the bank and now threatens the wooden stairway.  Despite supposedly protective tidal fencing, trees have been ripped from the bank by the erosive force of winter storms and flood tides. 

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Continuous Winter Overwash Transforms Indian Neck Salt Marsh

Nearby, this winter’s continuous overwash of the foredune along Indian Neck’s Blackfish Creek shore has transformed the salt marsh habitat previously protected behind it.

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Winter Tides Threaten Terrapin Nesting Sites on Lieutenant Island’s Marsh Road 

Repeated storms and flood tides soften and threaten the extremely productive terrapin nesting sites along Marsh Road on Lieutenant Island’s south shore.  Tidal wrack has been strewn along the roadway and into abutting yards.  Turtle Journal has not previously seen such erosion in the last dozen years.

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Erosion of Lieutenant Island’s Meadow Avenue West

Tides similarly assaulted the roadway connecting the first (east) and second (west) islands with significant erosion and softening.

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Four Additional Pilot Whale Skeletons Exposed by Tidal Erosion

On the west shore of Lieutenant Island, four more pilot whale skeletons have extruded from the sand with winter battering.  See the earlier Turtle Journal posting, Whale Bones Rise from Sands of History, from late January 2010.

Posted in Habitat, Marine Mammals, Trees and Vegetation, Turtles | Comments Closed

Spring Erupts in the Great White North!

Monday, March 8th, 2010

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Painted Turtles Basking in Marion’s Goldwitz Bog

Three solid days of open sunshine and 50º F midday temperatures enticed South Coast painted turtles to haul out of their winter hibernacula and to bask on warm rocks in Marion’s Goldwitz Bog.  While there are many potential signs of spring, nothing says springtime more powerfully than a basking painted turtle in early March.

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Spring Colors Blurred in Rising Water Vapor Transforms Nature to Monet

More than a dozen painted turtles clung to the radiating warmth of these rocks.

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Snow Cover Lingered through Sunday at the Bog

Just yesterday, the pathway to the Goldwitz Bog remained buried in a couple of inches of crunchy snow.  By this afternoon, snow had disappeared and turtles had re-appeared!

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Fiddler Crab in South Wellfleet Marsh

A sure sign of spring in the salt marsh systems of Outer Cape Cod is the resumption of activity by fiddler crabs.  As we patrolled the Fox Island Wildlife Management Area off Indian Neck, we found fiddler crabs scurrying beneath the winter Spartina patens and alternaflora.

Fiddler Crabs Resume Activity in Early March

The final precursor to spring is one that the Turtle Journal team detests.  Also resuming activity in the oozy marsh channel of the Fox Island Wildlife Management Area were congregations of mud snails.  While we have no objection to mud snails per se, they carry a parasite that transfers to human (READ: “our”) legs causing what is often described as “fisherman’s itch,” also know as schistosomiasis.  Unfortunately, mud snails and diamondback terrapins share the same oozy habitat.

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Mud Snails Congregate in Oozy Marsh Creeks

Welcome to Spring 2010!

Posted in Habitat, Marine Species, Turtles | 1 Comment »

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