OLD COLONY MEMORIAL (Plymouth, Massachusetts) 24 August 07 c - Rehabbed reptiles released to the sea (Ryan Richardson)
Buzzards Bay: The National Marine Life Center, along with the New England Aquarium, released 11 endangered sea turtles into the waters off Osterville Monday. The struggle to get these turtles back to their homes began more than nine months ago when they found themselves on the shore of Cape Cod.
For a few months, the waters off the Cape have a lot to offer the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. The ocean is warm, at least by New England standards, and there are plenty of crabs scuttling about just waiting to be eaten.
“They’re crab-a-vores,” Roger Williams, the science director for the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay, said. “We buy green and blue crabs to feed them. As soon as the crabs go in the tank, the turtles are after them.”
The center had six turtles staying in its rehabilitation tanks since last fall, and the staff had a lot of time to become familiar with this endangered species. The turtles were stranded because of the effects from being exposed to cold water. Members of the Wellfleet Audubon Society found them on the beach.
Because Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles are cold-blooded, they are very vulnerable to the temperature of their environment. When a cold-blooded animal gets too cold, its body begins to slow down to the point where it is hard to tell if it is dead or alive. This is referred to as cold-stunning, which is what happened to the turtles when they stayed too long in the waters off the Cape.
Stunned turtles can fall victim to disease, rocks and predators as their immune systems weaken and their bodies shut down. A few wind up along the beaches in November and December when volunteers are on the lookout in the hopes of rescuing a few of the turtles while they’re still alive.
The turtles are then taken to the New England Aquarium, which has both the staff and facilities to take care of the turtles, many of which are suffering from hypothermia and other ailments and injuries. Once they are stable, a few of the turtles are taken to the National Marine Life Center to get rehabilitated.
“The primary thing is to provide a quiet and safe environment for them to recover in,” Michelle Simms, the NMLC’s attending veterinarian, said.
It isn’t uncommon for rehabilitation to take several months for the turtles, whereas rehabilitation for a warm-blooded animal may take only a few weeks. During this time, the Kemp’s Ridleys are given a battery of diagnostic tests to make sure that they are in good health.
Once the turtles are cleared to return to the wild, a process that can take a few weeks because of the regulations surrounding the endangered species, the wait still isn’t over. The rescuers need to find a good location to return the animals to the water so they can rejoin the population in their normal routine. Once a release site has been found, a program to monitor them is set up and staffers count down the days until they can return the turtles to their watery homes.
Not all of the turtles are ready for release at the same time as their companions. Lavender, a Kemp’s Ridley rescued last year, is suffering from a case of pneumonia that has yet to clear.
“I’m very optimistic that we can get Lavender back out,” Williams said.
While Lavender is expected to recover, there are some animals that will never be fit to return to the water.
“The goal is to get them back out in to the wild, but everyone has a bond to the animal and wants to see the best thing done for the animal,” Williams said.
For various reasons, an animal can be deemed as non-releasable. What happens to the animal from that point depends on the species. Because the turtles are covered under the Endangered Species Act, the government needs to be satisfied of a turtle’s non-releasable status. Once that determination is made, a search begins to help find a home for the turtle. Ideally, Williams said, that home would be a properly certified zoo or aquarium.
The turtles that received the green light to return to nature were brought to Dowses Beach in Osterville. Many traveled in pet-carriers in the back of trucks that had been padded with towels to protect them from jostling and bumping.
“They do bite and scratch a little, so you have to be careful,” Williams said.
Once the turtles are taken to the beach, they’re escorted down to the water where they then disappear beneath the waves.
For Florence, Hibiscus, Jalape¤o, Panaphil and Rosemary - the five turtles released by the National Marine Life Center - their journey has really just begun. The Kemp’s Ridley turtles make their way every year to the Gulf of Mexico, where almost the entire species gathers on the coast of the Mexican state of Tamaulipasan, an area threatened by coastal development and human encroachment. Their arrival en masse to Rancho Nuevo beach also makes them very vulnerable to natural disasters and disease that could hit the entire population.
Treated turtles head home