THE UPPER CAPE CODDER (Sandwich, Massachusetts) 17 January 07 Turtles will rehab in Buzzards Bay (Rich Eldred)
It was a welcome sign they couldn’t read, but the billboard outside the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay read “Welcome New Turtles.” And all nine endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles were welcomed with full hospitality by staff and volunteers when they arrived by KON Limousine Service from the New England Aquarium in Boston just after noon Tuesday.
“They’ve been through the critical stage,” explained center director Kathy Zagzebski. “They were suffering from being cold stunned and they are gradually warmed up at the Aquarium where they have specialists in that. They are all back to regular temperature.”
It was a return to the Cape, in better circumstances, for the ridleys which washed ashore in Cape Cod Bay from Dennis to Wellfleet, half frozen between late October and December.
One of the staff veterinarians, Dr. Michele Sims, gave the sea turtles a physical once they were unpacked from their snug plastic travel crates.
“We take the length of the carapace, and width, both curved and straight, and we do the weight,” Sims explained. “We account for any bodily injuries. We monitor the blood chemistry, do a white blood cell count.”
Sounds like a pretty high-class health plan but the turtles merit the gold card treatment.
“It’s the most endangered sea turtle in the world, there are probably fewer than 1,000 nesting females and they have one nesting beach in northeastern Mexico,” Zagzebski said.
Their original rescue station was Mass. Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary where they were checked out and forward to the ICU at the Aquarium in Boston. The aquarium can only handle so many and the rest are relocated to Woods Hole, New York, Maine and the Buzzards Bay.
“We’ve proven that we do an amazing job,” Zagzebski said. “Our staff learned a tremendous amount in the last year and a half [when they had seven turtles] from these animals and working with the people at NOAA.”
Sims peered in their mouths, checked both sides of the head, flexed all the flippers, noted any sores, applied surface antibiotics, drew some blood, studied the shell and noted any points of interest. The blood is tested for nutrients, sodium, blood sugars and such.
“It’s a standard blood panel, the same kind you would have only the reptile version,” Zagzebski said.
The weakened turtles also get internal antibiotics, anti-fungal medications if required and a special diet.
“It’s a mixture of feed. We give them herring, shrimp, squid, quahogs and crabs. Some prefer a certain food and will eat one thing, some eat everything,” Zagzebski explained. “We have a local fisherman that donates crabs that clog his traps. Crabs are a great thing for the animals and give them nutrients they don’t get from fish and squid.”
That also provides exercise.
“We put them in live which gives them something to chase and hunt,” she noted.
When the turtles strand, they’re sluggish to the point of immobility, but these nine waved their flippers and studied the room.
“Michele is looking over each portion of their body,” Zagzebski explained. “See how the shell is uniformly black? When they’re healthy they have nice striations. The skin is discolored form the cold, like with frostbite.”
Sims waved a microchip scanner over them on the chance that any carried an embedded microchip inside as a tag. They were all novices. Each turtle was photographed for future comparison.
Once the exam was done, the patients were gently placed into one of two gray steel 3,600-gallon tanks, 12 feet in diameter and 5 feet deep. Each tank had a cement block and a rock at the bottom to add interest.
“As Brian [Moore] puts the animal into the tank, he puts them in with their head facing the wall because the flippers are flapping and if you put them in the other way they could injure themselves by hitting the wall,” Zagzebski pointed out.
Once they’re in the water they swam the circumference of their new world. The nine will be split between the two tanks.
“Just like kids, you might place in a different play group we’ll place them accordingly,” Zagzebski noted. “Last year tow turtles out-competed the others for food, so we put those in a separate tank.”
The tanks were in an indoor hoop greenhouse, in what used to be the Grossman’s warehouse. The water is kept at a cozy 75 degrees.
“The turtles are our only long-term patients. We have a couple of seal pens that will allow us to bring in seals,” said Zagzebski.
They have different colored flipper tags to make sure the right turtle gets the right medicine, which usually is ingested with the squid.
“We don’t know why the species comes up here. After they hatch they disappear for about 10 years. Usually they hang around in the Gulf Stream. Some spin off from the Gulf Stream and hang out in Cape Cod Bay and a portion of those don’t make it back outside,” Zagzebski said.
Last year the turtles received names such as Kelly, Claw, Flash and Lemony Snicker. All seven were released on Dowses Beach in Osterville Aug. 24.
Next summer when the water temperature reaches above 70 degrees, these young turtles will head back to sea.
Turtles will rehab in Buzzards Bay