{"id":3757,"date":"2009-12-17T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=3757"},"modified":"2010-01-16T09:22:53","modified_gmt":"2010-01-16T14:22:53","slug":"first-ever-endangered-sea-turtle-found-in-taunton-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=3757","title":{"rendered":"First-Ever Endangered Sea Turtle Found in Taunton River"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle in Taunton River<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00c2\u00a0 An outdoorsman had stumbled across the cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley\u00c2\u00a0in a quiet estuary off the Taunton River at the border of the towns of Dighton and Somerset.\u00c2\u00a0 In the current frigid conditions, by the time we got\u00c2\u00a0to the site the turtle\u00c2\u00a0lay with an ice cap crowning\u00c2\u00a0the top of its carapace.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Location of Kemp’s Ridley in Taunton River<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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Kemp’s Ridley Found Near Rare Terrapin Nesting Site<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Coincidentally, the\u00c2\u00a0spot 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.<\/p>\n

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Kemp’s Ridley\u00c2\u00a0Covered in Marsh Grass with Ice Cap<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00c2\u00a0 This specimen seemed in remarkly good condition … if only we could have reached it before conditions had turned so cold.<\/p>\n

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First-Ever Sea Turtle Found in Taunton River<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The spot where the ridley came ashore proved an isolated location quite a distance through the woods from Route 138.\u00c2\u00a0 The movie clip above documents the trail to the site and the recovery of this extremely rare\u00c2\u00a0specimen.<\/p>\n

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Distinctive Carapace of Kemp’s Ridley Juvenile<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Turtle Journal team brought the Kemp’s ridley to Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary<\/a> in Wellfleet on Outer Cape Cod, where sea turtle rescues in Massachusetts are coordinated by its director, Bob Prescott.<\/p>\n

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Algae Covered Plastron of Kemp’s Ridley Juvenile<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00c2\u00a0 An outdoorsman had stumbled across the cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley\u00c2\u00a0in a quiet estuary off the Taunton River at the border of the towns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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\/3757"}],"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=3757"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3774,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3757\/revisions\/3774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}