Annual meeting
Last Friday, we had our annual state sea turtle meeting in Swansboro, at Hammocks Beach State Park. There were about 70 participants there throughout the day. Presenters included Keith Rittmaster, Carmel Zetts, Kelly Stewart, Dan Rittschof, Lisa Campbell, Amanda Southwood, Sue Cameron, Brian Shamblin, Wendy Cluse and yours truly. The day ended with a necropsy demonstration by Wendy and Lisa Goshe, using a small green turtle that had been frozen after it was found stranded dead in January. If you look carefully, you can see small icicles forming on Wendy's fingers. This is because the turtle was still largely frozen. It was my job to pull the turtle out of the freezer two days ahead of time, which I did. However, I should not have put it into a cooler until the necropsy itself. Usually, in the summer, frozen turtles thaw quite quickly, so had this been July, the green would have been fully thawed even though it had been kept in a small cooler. Alas, it is not July, but March and its normally cool weather. Still, Wendy was unperturbed and remained dedicated to her task. She only took a break when she lost all feeling in her fingers, yet the majority of the work had been done. Yet another example of Wendy putting everything she has into her job!
