{"id":12011,"date":"2012-11-28T12:43:36","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T17:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=12011"},"modified":"2012-11-28T18:19:21","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T23:19:21","slug":"rescued-most-endangered-sea-turtle-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=12011","title":{"rendered":"RESCUED! Most Endangered Sea Turtle in the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sue Wieber Nourse and Rescued Kemp’s Ridley<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Freezing and blustery … in other words, perfect conditions to rescue cold-stunned sea turtles in the Great White North.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue Wieber Nourse and Rufus the Turtle Dog headed to Outer Cape Cod this morning, targeting Saints Landing in Brewster as the most likely spot to find a stranded sea turtle with frigid winds pounding out of the north-northwest.<\/p>\n

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Cold-Stunned Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley in Brewster<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

They headed east at Saints Landing and just before reaching the impassable, flooded area near Breakwater, Sue spotted the pinkish, white plastron of a Kemp’s ridley helpless and tossed upside down in the stormy surf.\u00c2\u00a0 This 2-to-3 year old juvenile weighed about six pounds.\u00c2\u00a0 Pinkish coloration confirms cold-stunning, as blood pools ventrally\u00c2\u00a0when the heart rate drops to only a couple of beats a minute.<\/p>\n

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Rufus Guards Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Once Sue recovered the turtle from the pounding surf, it quickly responded with lively movement, indicating an excellent candidate for rehabilitation and return to the wild.\u00c2\u00a0 Rufus stood guard as Turtle Journal notified Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary that Sue would be bringing the turtle to Wellfleet for transport to the New England Aquarium.<\/p>\n

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Cold-Stunned Jvenie Kemp’s Ridley in Cape Cod Bay<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Kemp’s ridleys are one of the most endangered sea turtles in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 As part of their natural life cycle they drift north as hatchlings from their natal sites in the Gulf of Mexico, catching a ride\u00c2\u00a0on sargasso mats in\u00c2\u00a0the Gulf Stream.\u00c2\u00a0 Around age two or three, they leave the Gulf Stream and transition to a benthic habitat by swimming west to the coast.\u00c2\u00a0 Those that hit the U.S. north of Massachusetts have to contend with the giant arm of Cape Cod as they begin to migrate south with dropping water temperatures.\u00c2\u00a0 Each\u00c2\u00a0fall juveniles get trapped in Cape Cod Bay by cold waters, become cold-stunned and are eventually driven ashore like flotsam and jetsam\u00c2\u00a0in stormy conditions.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Cold-Stunned Kemp’s Ridley\u00c2\u00a0Shows Signs of Life<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If we can rescue them from beaches before hypothermia finishes them off, these critcally endangered turtles can be rehabilitated and returned to the wild to restore diminished populations. At each high tide in the very worst of weather conditions, rescuers scour beaches facing the prevailing winds in search of stranded turtles.<\/p>\n

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Juvenile Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle En Route to Rehabilitation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For this lucky Kemp’s ridley, Sue and Rufus were at the\u00c2\u00a0right spot at the right time, just as it hit the shore.\u00c2\u00a0 So,\u00c2\u00a0this turtle’s\u00c2\u00a0chances for survival are very good.\u00c2\u00a0 And in the\u00c2\u00a0case of critcally endangered species like the Kemp’s ridley, saving one juvenile at a time really\u00c2\u00a0means saving their whole world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sue Wieber Nourse and Rescued Kemp’s Ridley Freezing and blustery … in other words, perfect conditions to rescue cold-stunned sea turtles in the Great White North.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue Wieber Nourse and Rufus the Turtle Dog headed to Outer Cape Cod this morning, targeting Saints Landing in Brewster as the most likely spot to find a stranded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12011"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12023,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12011\/revisions\/12023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}