The world according to me....

This is a picture of Wendy releasing a turtle that was brought back for sampling from Core Sound, North Carolina, as part of a larger sea turtle health assessment research project. This is just another example of my turtle-rich experiences that I have with Wendy here in North Carolina.

Yesterday, I stopped in the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island and many of the turtles currently being treated reminded me of previous adventures with Wendy, including:
India: the first turtle I ever responded to with Wendy. We had to carry the turtle up some steep wooden stairs and I realized how tough Wendy was when she kept going, gritting her teeth, despite the heaviness of the the turtle and awkwardness of the climb;
Breakers: a turtle that was sick and floating off of Atlantic Beach last May. Wendy and I swam out several hundred meters and slowly pushed it back to the beach through the waves;
Caspar: a loggerhead that was accidentally hooked and brough to shore by a concerned fisherman. I originally picked him up from the marina in Swansboro and then transferred him to Wendy's truck and she took him down to Topsail while I tried to recover from a fever.

Then there are the amazing people and personalities that we have met on our travels around the state:
The grandfather who insisted we eat watermelon from his garden after we finished a turtle necropsy in his front yard;
The kids whose sandcastles we had to judge;
The people from the media who seem to want us to say certain things
etc.

There seems to be no limit to the new experiences that are available in working on the NC Sea Turtle Project.