Dozens of people watched through the observation window into the treatment area as our colleagues from SC DNR attached a satellite transmitter to Golden Boy’s carapace (see photo).
They are doing a project looking at behavioral differences between debilitated turtles, rehabilitated turtles and wild-caught healthy turtles. We’ll post the link to Golden Boy’s satellite track to our website (georgiaseaturlecenter.org) as soon as we start getting data (which should be very soon).

At 2:15 PM this afternoon in front of a crowd of about 300 people, Golden Boy wasted no time as he crawled into the water and quickly swam offshore. We watched for nearly 20 minutes as he surfaced every few minutes to breathe farther and farther form the beach and held our collective breaths as he swam almost directly into the path of a shrimp boat operating nearby! Keep checking back for updates.

Dr. Bill Irwin, Director

Right in front of us, Dylan chowed down on a live horseshoe crab. He chased it around the tank and chomped on it from different angles. When he had a good “grip,” he used his front flippers to hold the crab while he ripped it apart (like tearing off a bite of beef jerky). Some photos are below (video to come soon).

-Bill

Golden Boy will receive his transmitter in the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island at 11:00 a.m. Thursday morning. After the fixative has had a chance to set, we will transport him by truck to the beach access point just north of the Convention Center on N. Beachview Drive. There is a huge parking lot there with a dune cross-over on each side of the access point (the access point is for authorized vehicles only!!). The anticipated release time on the beach is between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m.

Here’s a photo of Golden Boy receiving his final veterinary check up prior to being released. He is in great shape and we are looking forward to following his travels! Our colleagues at South Carolina DNR are providing the transmitter as part of their ongoing research project studying differences between debilitated and healthy sea turtles. We are also grateful to our colleagues at Sea World Orlando for taking such great care of this turtle when there was no rehabilitation center here in Georgia!

Dr. Bill Irwin, Director