One of the really nice things about working here in coastal North Carolina is the pool of experienced people available when turtle events arise. A case in point is last Tuesday, when James went out with Lisa Goshe and others on the biweekly trip to pound nets in Core Sound, part of the ongoing NOAA-Beaufort Lab mark-recapture project. Around 11am, Larisa called me to say that Lisa G. was returning with an injured turtle. I met them over at the Beaufort Lab, and sure enough, the turtle had an old wound at the end of its carapace, perhaps an old boat strike or propellor cut. The turtle also had some lesions on its flippers, its plastron was covered with leech eggs, and Larisa reported that its blood sample revealed a lower-than-normal level of total solids. All in all, these were signs of an unhealthly turtle. Lisa, Larisa and April helped me transfer the loggerhead to my truck, and I drove over to see Terra Kelly (above), a veterinary resident with the NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine and based at CMAST. Terra made an initial inspection of the animal and called Jean Beasley of the Topsail Turtle Hospital, to confer about treatment once the turtle arrived at the Topsail Rehab Center (the next stop). Soon after, Wendy arrived and she took over, driving the turtle down to Topsail. As you can see, lots of people came together to deal with this injured turtle on a normal fall day in eastern North Carolina!