Mindy Todd of  the Cape and the Island National Public Radio station hosts a live, daily program called the Point.   Join Mindy, weekdays at 9:30am and a repeat broadcast at 7:30pm, for lively and informative discussion on critical issues for Cape Cod & the Islands. She welcomes your phone calls at 866-999-4626 and e-mails at: thepoint@wgbh.org. You can listen to the Point live and on-line by clicking here.
On Christmas Eve, Mindy will host Don Lewis of Turtle Journal to talk turtles. The conversation is sure to cover the sea turtle stranding season in which nearly 200 endangered turtles have washed ashore on Massachusetts beaches. Rumors abound that Don will be accompanied by four reptilian companions, representative hatchlings from each local turtle species that Turtle Journal has rescued this fall. Their nicknames (Painted, Snappy, Boxie and Notch) hint at their genetic origins.
Don’t miss the Point on Thursday, December 24th, on FM 90.1, 91.1 or 94.3 … or listen on-line by clicking here at 9:30 am. The show will be rebroadcast at 7:30 pm on Christmas Eve. If you miss these broadcast opportunities, the program will be posted on the Point web page a couple of days after the original broadcast.
Endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle in Taunton River
In a stranding season filled with rare events, the Turtle Journal team recovered the first-ever endangered sea turtle from the Taunton River on Thursday morning. An outdoorsman had stumbled across the cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley in a quiet estuary off the Taunton River at the border of the towns of Dighton and Somerset. In the current frigid conditions, by the time we got to the site the turtle lay with an ice cap crowning the top of its carapace. Â
Location of Kemp’s Ridley in Taunton River
Yes, the Taunton River is a long, long way from Cape Cod Bay from which nearly 200 endangered sea turtles have been recovered cold-stunned this November and December. It’s also a good distance from Buzzards Bay where three Kemp’s ridley were found and Martha’s Vineyard that yielded two cold-stunned sea turtles this year. In fact, this Kemp’s ridley is the first cold-stunned sea turtle we have ever found in the Taunton River, although the Turtle Journal team did receive an unconfirmed report several years ago that a kayaking couple had encountered sea turtles in a Swansea cove in late summer.
Kemp’s Ridley Found Near Rare Terrapin Nesting Site
Coincidentally, the spot where this juvenile Kemp’s ridley was found is in close proximity to a rare nesting site for an isolated population of threatened diamondback terrapins in Freetown, a stone’s throw to the east.
Kemp’s Ridley Covered in Marsh Grass with Ice Cap
When we reached the turtle late Thursday morning, it sported an Arctic ice cap atop its carapace, as the ridley lay under a deep pile of marsh grass near the river’s edge. This specimen seemed in remarkly good condition … if only we could have reached it before conditions had turned so cold.
First-Ever Sea Turtle Found in Taunton River
The spot where the ridley came ashore proved an isolated location quite a distance through the woods from Route 138. The movie clip above documents the trail to the site and the recovery of this extremely rare specimen.
Distinctive Carapace of Kemp’s Ridley Juvenile
The Turtle Journal team brought the Kemp’s ridley to Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellfleet on Outer Cape Cod, where sea turtle rescues in Massachusetts are coordinated by its director, Bob Prescott.
Winds continue to blow, temperatures continue to plunge, and tropical sea turtles continue to be expelled from the frigid waters of Cape Cod Bay. With numbers approaching 150 critically endangered turtles, beach patrols go out at each high tide in search for helpless animals that would quickly succumb to hypothermia without aggressive intervention. Friday night, as the Weather Channel charts below indicate, proved a gruesome night for tropical critters and human rescuers with temperatures on the Outermost Cape dipping into the low 20s, a powerful westerly gale raking the coastline and pounding breakers gouging beach and dunes.
Friday Night Temps Dipped into Low 20s on Outer Cape Cod
Gale Force Winds Roar from the Northwest
The real challenge Friday night was reaching the beach. “Landings” on Cape Cod are beach access points that usually involve a path through foredunes, creating a canyon effect. With a powerful on-shore blow, winds channel through this opening at hurricane force, scouring sand pebbles from the beach and spewing them horizontally through the “canyon.” The only successful access to the beach on Friday night demanded a backwards approach, which proved a bit tricky considering pitch darkness, unbalancing gusts and sifting sands. Knockdowns were neither unknown nor infrequent.
Tropical Sea Turtle Rescued in Arctic Conditions
Still, turtles would be tossed ashore with the night high tide and rescuers were needed to patrol miles and miles of beaches from Truro to Brewster no matter the conditions. The video above documents the recovery of a medium sized juvenile Kemp’s ridley from the raging surf off Ryder Beach in South Truro.
Cold-Stunned Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley
This Kemp’s ridley had taken in a lot of water while tumbling through the surf zone. The hope we feel for each rescued animal is only encouraged by the number of “dead turtles” that “return to life” after 24 hours of resting in dry dock at the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Several Kemp’s marked down as DOA on Thursday snapped back to life on Friday.Â
Critically Endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle
Turtles are wonderfully resilient animals, and cold-stunned tropical sea turtles need to be resilient when trapped in near Arctic conditions of wintry Cape Cod Bay. For critically endangered turtles like the Kemp’s ridley, every effort we make to save these juveniles pays enormous dividends toward the survival of the species; saving the species, one turtle at a time.
“Today on CapeCast: A perfect confluence of bad storms and temperature changes means more endangered sea turtles washing up on Cape beaches. Watch compelling footage as volunteers and staffers from Mass. Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary tend to these cold creatures. Go inside the turtle emergency room at the Wellfleet Bay Audubon sanctuary and see what’s up with the recent spate of endangered turtle strandings!“
Turtle Journal Scours Dennis Beach before Sunset
From record high temperatures and pleasant warm breezes last week, Cape Cod snapped into winter mode this weekend. An Arctic front swept through New England and roared across the bay, creating enormous breakers by Sunday afternoon with a sustained 30-knot northerly wind blowing unobstructed on the long fetch from Downeast Maine to the northern shores of Dennis and Brewster. Sea turtles that had lingered too long in Cape Cod Bay were tossed ashore and spread along endless miles of wind-facing beaches. Staff and volunteers of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary searched those beaches for several hours at every high tide, daylight and nighttime, to rescue tropical sea turtles before the frigid winds turned recoverable cold-stunning into irreversible freezing.
Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley Tossed Ashore in Freezing Conditions
During times like these, experienced rescuers have learned to put personal and professional lives on hold and to suspend important decisions until punch-drunk sleep deprivation can be relieved with a few hours of uninterrupted z’s. This posting attempts to convey the feel of around-the-clock turtle rescues, the unimagined bliss of finding and saving some of the rarest sea turtles in the world, the majestic beauty of raw nature and a bit of the comedic interlude that refreshes our sleep starved team as we pound out mile after mile after lonely mile of patrols.Â
While it comes late in this posting, the short video of the 3 AM rescue of a small Kemp’s ridley from Dennis on Monday morning (see below) may give you a visceral sense of the moment of discovery when out of the impenetrable darkness a ray of hope emerges. For each turtle saved, individuals scour tens of miles of windswept, wave eroded and wrack laden beaches during the worst imaginable weather conditions.
Powerful Winds, Plunging Temperature Drive Turtles Ashore
The engines that drive turtles ashore in Cape Cod each fall are winds, waves and tides … with an assist from dropping temperatures. Trapped in the bay as they migrate southward when cued by dropping ocean temperatures, juvenile Kemp’s ridleys, green sea turtles and loggerheads become snared in the jutting geography of Cape Cod’s giant arm. Sluggish in chilling waters, they enter cold-stunned stupor at about 50° F and become as helpless as any other piece of flotsam and jetsam in the sea. The physics of prevailing winds, wave actions and relentless tides drive turtles ashore on beaches in the opposing direction of the wind. Once they are tossed onto land, the life clock starts ticking because exposed to frigid ambient temperatures and blistering winds, these tropical animals will quickly lose whatever remains of their energy and life force. Unless recovered soon after stranding, they will not survive.
So, the dangerous beauty of a windstorm actually saves the lives of these sea turtles, giving us access to them before hypothermia becomes irreversible. The sooner in the season they strand, the higher the probability of survival. The longer they are exposed to the cold elements of a harsh Cape Cod fall, the smaller the odds of recovery.
Cold-Stunned Kemp’s Ridley at Mayflower Beach
The pace of strandings this weekend has hit a record tempo as we surpass 100 cold-stunned sea turtles for the season. With gale force winds pounding the Cape, turtles came ashore on every tide, like this Kemp’s ridley tosssed upside down by the morning tide in Dennis on Sunday.
Recoverying Kemp’s Ridley from Mayflower Beach
The video clip above documents the recovery of a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle found by a beachwalker at Mayflower in Dennis on Sunday. The proper rescue procedure is to move the animal above the high water line so that it doesn’t get swept back out to sea, to cover the turtle with dry seaweed to prevent additional hypothermia from exposure, and to call the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at 508-349-2615 to report the location of the find. Trained rescuers respond to the site and recover the animal for evaluation, triage and follow-on treatment.
Entertaining Intermission with Shorebird Ballet
Walking miles of beach in sleep-starved giddiness, you often encounter natural diversions to keep your mind and eyes sharp and fixed on the mission. As Turtle Journal walked the Chapin Beach leg of Dennis on Sunday afternoon, a ballet troupe of shorebirds offered an entertaining interlude with a setting sun as dramatic backdrop.
Gripping 3 AM Rescue of Endangered Kemp’s Ridley
With a dozen turtles arriving with each tide, the call was inevitable. “On the beaches for the 2:50 AM high tide Sunday night/Monday morning.“  One advantage to a middle of the night sea patrol is the lack of competing traffic. Heck, not a single solitary human being was out and about as we drove through 6A in Dennis and along the backroads to the beach. Turtle Journal drew the western edge of the search from Chapin Beach to Sea Street Beach in Dennis.
The weather had worsened … considerably. Temperatures dipped below freezing. Storm puddles behind the dunes sported razor thin ice sheets. Winds still whistled from the northwest and angled breakers across the shallow tidal flats onto the beach. Any turtle stranded on this tide, on this night, would die before dawn unless rescued soon after beaching.
As I zigzagged through the drift fencing at Mayflower Beach and scaled the wind-blown dunes to reach the shore, gusts still riled the bay and waves rumbled from left to right, west to east, sweeping seaweed and debris into piles along a dotted line called the wrack. That’s the spot we find most sea turtles, mixed among flotsam and jetsam expelled by an angry sea.
Endangered Kemp’s Ridley Stranded in Surf Zone
But this little Kemp’s ridley, measuring 25.7 centimeters (~ 10 inches) maximum straight-line carapace length, didn’t reach the wrack line. It lay in the intertidal surf at the edge of the receding bay. Even in the dark shadows of my headlamp, I could see the pinkish “pooling” of the skin around the ridley’s plastron (bottom side), indicating that its circulation had slowed to a crawl. Yet, there were hopeful signs in the wet beach sand where it had just been deposited. Indentations formed where the turtle may have swept its flippers back and forth in a swimming motion.
A finger touch behind the head caused a neck muscle contraction. The eyelid twittered to a gentle stroke. When lifted for the trip back to the rescue vehicle, the ridley began to wave its flippers enough to be considerd a lively specimen on a night of freezing beach temperatures.
Atlantic Saury (Scomberesox saurus)
Not only sea turtles become beached on nights like this. An Atlantic saury (see picture above) had also been tossed into the wrack.
EXTRA! EXTRA!!
Kemp’s Ridley Recovered from Woods Hole in Buzzards Bay!
Sue Wieber Nourse Recovers Kemp’s Ridley from Gansett Beach, Woods Hole
The overwhelming percentage (99.9%) of cold-stunned sea turtles are found on beaches abutting Cape Cod Bay. Truth be told, the vast majority come ashore from Barnstable in the west to Truro in the north. A few strand in Provincetown, fewer still in Sandwich, and isolated turtles along the west shore of Cape Cod Bay up to Hull and Quincy. You can imagine the surprise to receive a call from a Buzzards Bay beachwalker, relayed through MBL, that a possible green sea turtle had been found on private Gansett Beach in Woods Hole.
The Turtle Journal team took the call and drove to Woods Hole for the snipe hunt. After a few false starts, we found the beach and a cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley sea turtle at the edge of the wrack line. Sue Wieber Nourse showed this rare turtle to a young woman named Ursula (and her grandmother Ellie Armstrong) whom we encountered as we searched for the turtle.
Yes, this turtle strands with lots of questions for researchers, not the least of which might be how the heck did it get here. Did it get trapped in Cape Cod Bay and find its way through the canal into Buzzards Bay? Did it actually get trapped north of Martha’s Vineyard, succumb to cold-stunned stupor and then get beached in this weekend’s blow?
Who Us Worry?
Any sensible rescuer would be a bit worried by the number and the tempo of the sea turtle strandings this fall. Yet, what worries Turtle Journal most is that the 100+ turtles we have recovered to date are predominately smaller ridleys. These stranding seasons have a regular, repeatable pattern and rhythm; small first, medium next and large last. We’re still at the “small first” stage and already more than 100 turtles!Â
Yikes, we hope no one has plans for the forthcoming holidays. Beaches to walk, turtles to save! What better present to unwrap than a seaweed encased tropical sea turtle on a snow and ice covered Cape Cod beach in the midst of an ocean effect blizzard. Can it possibly get any better than saving the world one cold-stunned sea turtle at a time?
 
