{"id":12067,"date":"2012-12-14T15:24:35","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T20:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=12067"},"modified":"2012-12-14T17:56:16","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T22:56:16","slug":"turtle-journal-rescues-three-50-pound-loggerheads-on-truro-beaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=12067","title":{"rendered":"Turtle Journal Rescues Three 50+ Pound Loggerheads on Truro Beaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cold-Stunned Fifty+ Pound Loggerhead Sea Turtle<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Chipping-ice-off-windshield temperature and a blistering wind scouring bayside beaches at 20 knots, these represent perfect conditions in mid-December to find semi-tropical loggerhead sea turtles stranded on Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 The bay was white-capped and frothy; breakers, swelled by a new moon high tide,\u00c2\u00a0devoured the beach and ate into\u00c2\u00a0the toe of the dunes.\u00c2\u00a0 Yep.\u00c2\u00a0 Couldn’t be better to rescue the remaining live loggerheads trapped in Cape Cod Bay by frigid water temperatures.\u00c2\u00a0 With a west southwesterly blow, Turtle Journal calculated that turtles would most likely be found at Ryder and Fisher Beaches in Truro.\u00c2\u00a0 So, off sped Sue Wieber Nourse and Rufus the Turtle Dog to greet the noonish tide in search of troubled loggerheads.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Loggerhead Sea Turtle Swamped in Truro Surf<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

South of Ryder Landiing, they spotted the carapace of a loggerhead sea turtle swamped by pounding surf, the helpless animal submerged beneath the waves.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue dashed into the near freezing water and dragged this 50+ pound loggerhead to safety.\u00c2\u00a0 With the tide still rising, she lugged the critter higher and higher up the disappearing beach, no easy feat even with Rufus barking encouragement and supervising the rescue operation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rescued 50+ Pound Cold-Stunned Loggerhead<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When your back’s aching and toes are frozen numb, it’s hard to realize that these heavy, cumbersome turtles are actually still young juveniles who will quintuple their mass, at least, before reaching sexual maturity.\u00c2\u00a0 Thank the gods of nature that this cold-stunning process is a one time shot for loggerheads as they sow their wild juvenile oats.\u00c2\u00a0 Rescuing 50 or 60 several hundred pound, dead weight, cold-stunned loggerheads a year would literally and figuratively break our backs.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s tough enough when they hit the scales in the 50 to 100 pound range!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Second Rescued Loggerhead with CNN Cameraman<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary was called to recover the loggerhead with its turtle cart.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue covered the animal with dry seaweed to prevent any additional hyperthermia, and continued her patrol along the beach.\u00c2\u00a0 Within a few hundred feet, she and Rufus discovered a second 50+ pound loggerhead and dragged it far above the high water mark.\u00c2\u00a0 When the sanctuary team arrived, they were accompanied by a CNN photo-journalist to document the cold-stunning turtle rescue process.\u00c2\u00a0 He interviewed Sue on camera for about five minutes to capture the inside story on sea turtle rescues in the Great White North.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Third Cold-Stunned Loggerhead at Fisher Beach<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

With the recovery team and the photo-journalist gone, Sue and Rufus hopped in the car and headed north to the next landing at Fisher Beach.\u00c2\u00a0 We calculated that with two loggerheads at Ryder, there was a strong possibility of another along this west facing shoreline.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure enough, about a half mile south of Fisher, they found a third 50+ pound, cold-stunned loggerhead.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Loggerhead Missing Left Rear Flipper<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Like the first two, this loggerhead was still alive.\u00c2\u00a0 While examining the specimen, Sue discovered that it had a missing (and healed) left rear flipper.\u00c2\u00a0 We called the Sanctuary again and Dennis Murley, a valued friend and colleage of many years,\u00c2\u00a0zipped up\u00c2\u00a0Route 6 to Truro with the turtle cart to speed this sea turtle to treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rufus and Cold-Stunned Loggerhead Sea Turtle<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Loggerhead sea turtles, even these “juveniles,” are massive and powerful animals.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Despite their\u00c2\u00a0cold stunned state, they can inflict quite a bruise when they swing their flippers.\u00c2\u00a0 We liken them to tanks, for when left overnight in dry dock, they have been known to turn over every piece of furniture in the room.\u00c2\u00a0 You get a sense of their massive frame in comparison to 80 pound Rufus standing guard as she waits for the recovery team to arrive.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Rescuing Cold-Stunned Loggerhead Sea Turtles<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Finding three LIVE cold-stunned loggerheads on a mid-December day is a special and memorable event.\u00c2\u00a0 Congratulations to Sue Wieber Nourse and Rufus, turtle rescuers extraordinaire!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cold-Stunned Fifty+ Pound Loggerhead Sea Turtle Chipping-ice-off-windshield temperature and a blistering wind scouring bayside beaches at 20 knots, these represent perfect conditions in mid-December to find semi-tropical loggerhead sea turtles stranded on Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 The bay was white-capped and frothy; breakers, swelled by a new moon high tide,\u00c2\u00a0devoured the beach and ate into\u00c2\u00a0the toe of […]<\/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\/12067"}],"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=12067"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12122,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12067\/revisions\/12122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}