Here’s a video of the ribbon cutting ceremony at our Grand Opening Celebration!

Dr. J. Melvin Deese, Jr. and his team from Summit Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Surgery joined us today at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center to implant bone screws and attach an external fixation device that will allow us to stabilize Nick’s head injury so that it can heal. The surgery took place early this morning; Nick is recovering (as is the team!) and we’ll keep you posted on his progress. Below are photos of the apparatus and the treatment team.

-Bill

A very large loggerhead turtle was found dead yesterday on Jekyll Island. The posterior portion of the turtle was missing, presumably having been severed by a very large boat propeller. We noticed that there were “flipper tag scars” on both flippers (wounds where metal tags had been applied to the flippers but had been pulled out at some point). When turtles are tagged with flipper tags they are also commonly tagged under the skin of their shoulder or flipper with a Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tag that can be read with scanner. We check every turtle we find for PIT tags and this turtle DID have one. The most interesting thing is that this turtle had actually been tagged when she was nesting on Jekyll Island on June 9, 1999! The photos below tell the sad story of the end of this turtle’s nesting in Georgia…

On a brighter note: WE’RE OFFICIALLY OPENING THIS WEEKEND! I have lots of great things to share like photos of the 18-foot Archelon skeleton being installed and some encouraging news from the rehab area so “stay tuned!”

Dr. Bill Irwin, Director

Check out Susanna Capelouto’s story about the Georgia Sea Turtle Center!

I had a lot of fun today talking with Jon Patch on the Talkin’ Pets radio show. Check out the full show or an edited version (just my segment).

Dr. Bill Irwin, Director