Every year, in the fall, there are some North Carolina sea turtle hatchlings that need a little extra help getting out to sea where they belong. Sometimes they emerge from nests that were laid late in the season, and the water temperature close to shore is too cold for them; sometimes they are found injured on the beach after having been thrown back ashore by strong waves; or sometimes they have trouble moving after being stuck in the bottom of the nest for a time. These types of hatchlings are brought to rehabilitation centers, such as the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Topsail and the North Carolina Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores. After a few days or weeks, they are fit and ready to go, but by that time, they are not ready to make their frenzied swim from shore out to deeper waters. In these cases, we try to give them a hand. We do this by trying to get them space on boats heading out to the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream, where they are released in or near rafts fo sargassum. This year, there were approximately 25 hatchlings in this situation. Some of these actually came from nests in Virginia - our counterparts up there asked if their hatchlings could hitch a ride with ours - of course, we obliged. We have been fortunate that Jamie Cameron, a bird expert living in Swansboro, has gone out of his way to put us in touch with a pelagic bird boat tour that leaves Hatteras Village for regular birding trips in the summer and fall. The last trip of the season was scheduled for October 15, so we needed to get the hatchlings up to Hatteras for the 6am trip. We did this by coordinating with Christian Guerreri, staff of the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island and who, as part of her other duties, works at the joint NEST-NC Aquarium sea turtle rehabilitation center. Her name has appeared in previous blogs (for instance, see here), but I never had a chance to take a photo in visits to Manteo. This time, as I dropped off the 25 or so hatchlings the day before the scheduled trip, I made sure that I had my camera. Note that she is holding a green turtle hatchling. Although the large majority of nests in North Carolina are laid by loggerheads, we do get a few nests laid by green turtles and leatherbacks each year. For the release, the hatchlings stayed over Saturday night in the rehabilitation center tanks, because rough weather precluded a safe trip to the Gulf Stream as scheduled for that Saturday. Sunday morning, however, was relatively calm and Christian made the 2 hour drive from her home to Hatteras to transfer the turtles to the ship by 6am. The hatchlings made it out to sea easily, and should be swimming-floating-swimming to Macaraonesia now.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the third meeting of the Leatherback Turtle Expert Working Group, sponsored by NMFS and hosted by Scott Eckert in Trinidad. The meeting is being held at a small guest-house set high up on a large hill; the photo above is visible from one of the main windows. We are continuing our discussions on how to describe the leatherback stock(s) in the Atlantic Ocean, including trends (if any) and potential research needs for the future. We were supposed to visit some of the leatherback turtle nesting beaches in Trinidad, but our schedule has been thrown off by Hurricane Wilma, which is threatening to make it difficult or impossible for some of us to fly back to North America. We are planning on meeting a final time to finalize the product of our group's work. The rumor is that we are going to Canada for the fourth meeting, either Halifax or maybe Ottawa.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 07:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is Mike James (with Melissa Snover to his right), checking his email for an update on the status of a leatherback turtle that was entangled in some gear in Nova Scotia, Canada. The interesting thing is that Mike is in Trinidad right now, so he had been coordinating the disentanglement from a distance, via cellphone and email. In the end, he was able to get in touch with the family of a local fisherman that has previously collaborated with Mike and the Nova Scotia Leatherback Working Group on disentangling sea turtles. In the end, the local fishermen were able to free the turtle and send her (or him) on its way, free of any gear. Just another example of cooperation amongst different partners in sea turtle conservation and management, and also the benefit of cellphones and internet access.

Why are we in Trinidad? It is related to why were in Paris. Stay tuned for more details.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

How do you know when a turtle is ready to be released after rehabilitation? For starters, the caregivers of the rehabilitation center usually have a good feel for the state of their charges, as they spend several hours each day with the turtles during their recuperation. Also, you can ask a wildlife veterinarian (or two) to weigh in with advice. Each year, the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island successfully rehabilitates dozens of sick and injured sea turtles. Afinal step in rehabilitation prior to release is undergoing a final "physical" administered by wildlife veterinarians. The final physical involves a visual inspection, weighing and measuring (and tagging while we are at it), collecting blood for lab analyses, etc. This kind of work is also a good opportunity for vet students and residents to increase their experience working with marine reptiles, so there is usually a full house at the Topsail Turtle Hospital on Pre-release day. To make matters more complicated, I brought along my digital voice recorder and cajoled both Wendy and Craig to give brief comments on what the day is like. You can listen to their comments here. The final results of this particular Pre-release day was that 6 turtles were deemed fully rehabilitated. They were released into the surf on Topsail Beach in late September (you can see a video of this here). Their release means that six places at the Topsail Turtle Hospital have been freed up for future sick or injured turtles that are found in North Carolina and elsewhere. I imagine that it won't be long before those free tanks are filled up again.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Can you see the hatchling?

This was the scene at dusk on 03 October, 2005 in PIne Knoll Shores, NC. It is the last sea turtle nest to emerge on the island of Bogue Banks - there had been other nests on the island laid later than this nest, but they had been washed out by Hurricane Ophelia. This nest was also special because it was laid by a green sea turtle - a relatively rare but not unprecedented event in North Carolina. Most of the hatchlings from the nest emerged last Friday and Saturday nights. Yet, there were two stragglers remaining in the nest, so we got to see them and confirm that, indeed, it was laid by a green a turtle. If you want proof, see the photo below of one of the hatchlings scrambling to the surf after being liberated from the bottom of the nest:

Thus, the end of the 2005 nesting season in North Carolina is drawing to a close. There are still a few nests here and there along the coast that have not yet emerged, but soon the last nest will have run its course, making way for stranding season that usually peaks in November and December in North Carolina

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 07:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)