Turtle Journal

 

The Turtle Journal Team traveled to the Boston waterfront to tour the New England Aquarium on Sunday.  We had been told by friends and associates that Turtle Journal coverage of sea turtle strandings on Cape Cod was featured in a new exhibit.  Last year Tony LaCasse, director of media relations and spokesperson for the aquarium, asked us for video footage of beach rescues of cold-stunned sea turtles.  While there’s lots of quality media coverage of medical treatment and rehabilitation, there’s very little material of actual field rescues … because one has to be on the spot when the discovery and rescue are made.  There’s no time to dawdle on the beach while camera crews respond to the rescue scene.  Cold-stunned turtles need immediate attention if they are to survive.

 

Tiny Kemp’s Ridley Rescued by Turtle Journal Team

Fortunately for us, the Turtle Journal team totes cameras on our sea turtle patrols to document events as they occur.  For instance, integrated into the New England Aquarium documentary on the sea turtle stranding story is coverage of our rescue in fall 2008 of a tiny Kemp’s ridely sea turtle from a Brewster beach.  (See Tiny Kemp’s Ridley Rescued in Freezing Conditions and the accompanying video clip Rescuing Tiny Kemp’s Ridley.)  The report and photograph of this rescue appeared in the national newspaper, USA Today, on November 26th, 2008.

Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse Delivers Rescued Turtle

More coverage of that rescue was included in the aquarium documentary with a clip of Turtle Journal’s Sue Wieber Nourse delivering the tiny Kemp’s ridley to Wellfleet Bay for triage (see video Kemp’s Ridley Triage), as well as footage of the video clip, Triage to Treatment (Wellfleet to Boston), which highlights the ambulance ride from point-of-rescue at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to point-of-treatment at the New England Aquarium.

 

Russ and Kerry Barton Recover Cold-Stunned Loggerhead

Another rescue highlighted in the New England Aquarium documentary was the recovery of a 60-pound loggerhead from Point of Rocks in Brewster by Russ and Kerry Barton in late November 2008.  The Bartons had donated to the National Marine Life Center auction at the 2008 Mermaid Ball to win the chance to patrol for sea turtles with the Turtle Journal team.  Their adventure was presented in the story,  Turtle World Turned Upside Down, and received front page coverage in local newspapers (Dozens of Cold-Stunned Turtles Wash Up).

We are delighted to contribute our original Turtle Journal material to the New England Aquarium documentary and exhibit.

Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley in Rehab at New England Aquarium

And, besides, the visit to the New England Aquarium gave us a chance to visit with rescued turtles from the 2009 stranding season.

Turtle Medical Charts for Cold-Stunned Sea Turtles

Once we … like turtle EMTs … rescue stranded, cold-stunned sea turtles from the Cape Cod Bay each fall and attempt to stabilize their condition for transport, they are dispatched as quickly as possible to the New England Aquarium for intensive medical care.  Many turtles remain at the aquarium for long-term rehabilitation until the following August when they can be safely returned to the ocean on the south side of Cape Cod to continue their interrupted journey southward.

Cold-Stunned Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles in Rehab

Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are critically endangered with vastly diminished numbers.  Yet, because of their particular lifecycle behavior as juveniles, the overwhelming majority (~ 90%) of cold-stunned sea turtles in Cape Cod Bay are Kemp’s ridleys.  This fact is especially amazing considering that Rancho Nuevo, Mexico remains the predominant nesting grounds for this species, with some ridleys transplanted to and now nesting at Padre Island in southwest Texas.

Cold-Stunned Juvenile Green Sea Turtles in Rehab

Arguably, the most attractive of sea turtles are the greens.  This year yielded many juvenile green turtles in the fall cold-stunning event.  Numbers for stranded greens have been growing the last decade.

 

Myrtle the (Adult Green Sea) Turtle in the Ocean Tank

Besides seeing how well our 2009 rescued turtles are doing, we love to re-visit our perennial favorites in the large, circular ocean tank.

Adult Sea Turtles in New England Aquarium Ocean Tank

We are amazed each visit by the excitement generated among aquarium visitors by the sight of the huge adult sea turtles in the circular ocean tank.  Kids and adults stare at large tropical fish; they gawk as speedy rays swim across the glass; they ooh in awe when the enormous sharks glide by.  But they truly come alive and bounce in joy whenever any sea turtle cruises into view.  “It’s a turtle.  Look.  Can you see it?  A Turtle!  Do you see the turtle?”  As if one could miss a 400-pound green sea turtle that fills the entire viewing glass and blocks the light with its massive frame.  The connection between people and turtles is a mystical, magical, marvelous wonder that knits them together in a way that advances the most profound and existential interests of both species.

Chilly Vanderbilt Beach Gopher Tortoise: “I am smiling”

Winter 2010 has been a tough season for Florida reptiles and amphibians.  The January cold snap drove thousands of Atlantic and Gulf Coast sea turtles onto the beach, cold-stunned and helpless.  You may recall that the Turtle Journal team found a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle washed up with the high tide on Vanderbilt Beach on February 7th; see Turtle Journal Discovers Loggerhead Sea Turtle on Gulf Coast Beach.  Anoles and other lizards were equally stunned by the January chill and fell from trees like balls of hail onto the nature trails of Southwest Florida. 

 

 Vanderbilt Beach Gopher Tortoise Burrow

Unsurprisingly, gopher tortoises remained largely invisible during the Turtle Journal expedition to the Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida.  Buried deep into their burrows, dug into some of the priciest turtle property in the world, they didn’t even venture out on the few occasions that temperatures nosed into the low 70s.  Nighttimes in the 40s were sufficient to convince any correct thinking gopher tortoise to choose a comfortable snooze over a wind-swept promenade.

 Male Gopher Tortoise Poses in Front of Stacked Beach Chairs

Yet, there’s always one critter that doesn’t get the word … or thinks that the rules of cold-blooded life simply don’t apply to him.  After all, he’s the top banana, living life large in the shadow of the five-star Ritz Carlton Resort Hotel on Vanderbilt Beach. 

Lone Male Gopher Tortoise Struts His Stuff

Sue Wieber Nourse surprised this male tortoise as he stiff-leggedly strolled from his protected borrow, across the dunes, down to the beach and then back again on a sunny afternoon.  Not a tourist nor another gopher tortoise in sight.

Quick Field Measure of Gopher Tortoise

Even without a high tech field kit, a well prepared researcher is always prepared to do a little science.  Sue gets her sneaker next to the gopher tortoise to obtain an ~ 12 inch straight-line carapace length.

Telltale Male Characteristics of Gopher Tortoise

The plastron shows the male concavity in the rear and annual growth lines on each scute.

Gopher Tortoise Hangs at Opening of Camouflaged Burrow

Having surveyed his empire and established his rightful position as alpha male on the Ritz Carlton beach, the gopher tortoise slid back into his well camouflaged and protected burrow, hanging out at the entrance … in case some equally adventuresome female tortoise had caught a glimpse of his demonstrable pre-eminence.  Hope springs eternal … even in the winter chill of Southwest Florida.

Juvenile Female Loggerhead

A small juvenile loggerhead sea turtle wows visitors to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples.  This young female was part of a temperature-gender experiment and will be released back into the wild once she attains 18 inches carapace length.  Now she’s enjoying the hospitality of the Conservancy and chowing down to reach her release size as soon as possible.

Juvenile Loggerhead at Conservancy of Southwest Florida

The Turtle Journal team had the fortune to tour the Conservancy during feeding time for this precious critter, and Sue Wieber Nourse captured the moment in the video clip above.