{"id":1649,"date":"2008-11-18T23:43:08","date_gmt":"2008-11-19T03:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1649"},"modified":"2008-11-19T10:46:18","modified_gmt":"2008-11-19T14:46:18","slug":"more-torpedo-rays-jolt-cape-cod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1649","title":{"rendered":"More Torpedo Rays Jolt Cape Cod"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n

Large Torpedo Ray on Wellfleet Bayside Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Turtle Journal learned today of the sixth and seventh torpedo ray sightings of the fall season.\u00c2\u00a0 You may recall that we had reported previously about Shocking Discovery! Torpedo Ray in Wellfleet Bay<\/a>, Torpedoes Los!<\/a>, and More Torpedo Rays Raise More Questions<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s reports add to the mystery of torpedo ray strandings on bayside beaches this season.\u00c2\u00a0 The “old boys network” says that a couple or three torpedo rays a season may have been the most documented by observant naturalists in other years, and many seasons saw no torpedo rays at all.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s always the possibility that\u00c2\u00a0greater awareness of this cool critter has prompted more consolidated reporting.\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever the cause, Turtle Journal hopes to document this season so that successor naturalists will have a base line against which to judge their findings.<\/p>\n

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Bob Prescott, Don Lewis & Kemp’s Ridley at Tip of Great Island (1999)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The National Park Service<\/a> plays a key role in our sea turtle rescue operations each fall season.\u00c2\u00a0 The long, long stretch of bayside beach from Pamet River to the tip of Great Island proves very difficult to patrol by foot at every high tide.\u00c2\u00a0 Miles and miles of sandy beach with no public roadways to leapfrog out to the distant tip of Jeremy Point.\u00c2\u00a0 Several\u00c2\u00a0Novembers ago, Bob Prescott (Wellfleet Sanctuary<\/a> director) and I returned from a long, cold Brewster beach patrol at 10:30 pm to find a blinking light on the Sanctuary turtle line.\u00c2\u00a0 “We just got back from a beach walk out to Jeremy Point,” an anonymous voice relayed, “where we found a stranded sea turtle.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t disturb it.\u00c2\u00a0 Left it on the beach.\u00c2\u00a0 It was alive when we left.”\u00c2\u00a0 Just what we wanted to hear so late at night with freezing rain, howling winds\u00c2\u00a0and plunging temperatures.\u00c2\u00a0 We sped to the parking lot\u00c2\u00a0on Griffin Island\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0hiked the three miles out (wind at our backs) and three miles back (sleet in our faces)\u00c2\u00a0with a small Kemp’s ridley tucked under\u00c2\u00a0my overcoat.<\/p>\n

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Torpedo Ray\u00c2\u00a0Found North of Great Island\u00c2\u00a0by NPS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now NPS rangers graciously patrol the bayside beaches all the way down Great Island in search of cold-stunned sea turtles.\u00c2\u00a0 When they find stranded turtles, the rangers deliver them to Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary<\/a> for triage and stabilization before the turtles are driven by volunteers to the New England Aquarium for medical care and rehabilitation.\u00c2\u00a0 But it all starts with the turtle “EMTs” who rescue them off the beaches and thanks to the National Park Service the long, lonely stretch from Griffin Island to Jeremy Point is no longer a “sea turtle dead zone” during stranding season.<\/p>\n

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Torpedo Ray with Superimposed 2-Foot Measuring Stick<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, Ranger Kelly patrolled that lonesome stretch and discoverd a freshly beached torpedo ray south of Bound Brook (yes, the Bound Brook of American toad fame) in north Wellfleet.\u00c2\u00a0 He called the 24\/7 Turtle Journal hotline (508-274-5108) to alert us to the discovery, and\u00c2\u00a0our team will dispatch to the site tomorrow to obtain scientific measurements.\u00c2\u00a0 For general reference, we’ve inserted a 24-inch bar into the photograph above to hint at the large size of this electric ray.\u00c2\u00a0 We thank Ranger Kelly and the NPS\u00c2\u00a0for the three photographs of the torpedo ray for tonight’s post.<\/p>\n

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Senior Mass Audubon Naturalist Dennis Murley<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dennis Murley of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary coordinates beach searches for cold-stunned sea turtles during the fall.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We called him after\u00c2\u00a0our talk with Ranger Kelly to alert him that\u00c2\u00a0his patrols\u00c2\u00a0might encounter the torpedo ray and that we would be returning to the animal on Wednesday to take measurements and to investigate possible causes\u00c2\u00a0of its demise.\u00c2\u00a0 Dennis told\u00c2\u00a0us that he had rescued a trapped torpedo ray in North Truro last week.\u00c2\u00a0 A lifelong Cape Codder, Dennis exclaimed, “The biggest darn torpedo ray I’ve ever seen.”\u00c2\u00a0 He said the ray had been trapped by a falling tide and Dennis was able to drag it to open water where he saw it swim away.\u00c2\u00a0 Because of the location and the timing, there is a possibility that the ranger’s find (torpedo ray #6) and the ray that Dennis rescued (torpedy ray #7)\u00c2\u00a0are one and the same.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll know more after we examine it on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

(ASIDE:\u00c2\u00a0 Are we the only ones who are left wondering about Dennis, who is widely known for walking barefoot year around, and his encounter with the live, 220-volt electrically charged torpedo ray?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what we call a natural, non-habit forming stimulant!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Large Torpedo Ray on Wellfleet Bayside Beach Turtle Journal learned today of the sixth and seventh torpedo ray sightings of the fall season.\u00c2\u00a0 You may recall that we had reported previously about Shocking Discovery! Torpedo Ray in Wellfleet Bay, Torpedoes Los!, and More Torpedo Rays Raise More Questions.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s reports add to the mystery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[824],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1664,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}