Tunicate

Georgia Sea Turtle Center - Monitoring of Rehabilitated Patients

A project of Georgia Sea Turtle Center.

click map for full-size version Tunicate didn't seem to take much time in looking around...he seemed to know EXACTLY where he wanted to go! And when that cold snap hit, he started headed south to warmer waters! Who can blame him?

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Species: Loggerhead
Life Stage: Sub-Adult
Gender: Male
Release Date: 2009-10-09 20:00:00
Release Location: Jekyll Island, GA
Last Location: 2010-04-13 02:44:14

Background

Tunicate was found by a fisherman in Chatham County on June 1, 2009. He was immediately transferred to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for care. When Tunicate arrived, he was floating, lethargic, emaciated, and had an overload of epibiota, particularly tunicates. Tunicate also had 2 old, healed wounds on the caudal and right side of his carapace. These wounds appear to possibly be from a boat strike and a shark bite, respectively. We removed the epibiota from Tunicate's shell, given antibiotics, and had 9 liters of air removed from his coelomic cavity.



Tunicate made a complete recovery and was released on October 9, 2009 from Jekyll Island, GA. Upon his final exam 5 days before his release, Tunicate was given flipper tags, a PIT tag and a satellite transmitter.

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