The time has come…
She’s ready to go…
Bevelyn is getting released!!!!
We will be celebrating BEV’S BON VOYAGE all weekend in anticipation of her upcoming release! So come to the GSTC this weekend to say ‘goodbye’ to Bev! We’ll have a kid’s craft table, a giant turtle card for everyone to sign,as well as our regularly scheduled programs!

Here’s the plan:
Sunday, November 18: at approximately 2pm Bev will have a satellite transmitter secured to her carapace (shell).
Monday, November 19: BEV’S RELEASE DATE! At approximately 6am, GSTC Staff will leave Jekyll Island to transport Bevelyn back to Panama City, Florida (where she came from!) for her release back into the Gulf!

Hope to see you all this weekend!!

Stefanie Ouellette
Education and Field Coordinator

Join us Tuesday, November 13th for Turtle Tales as we read My Little Book of Painted Turtles! Join the fun as we read, play, and explore together. Get creative as we make turtle inspired crafts! Get the chance to live your life as a sea turtle in our exhibit gallery and to see our turtle patients in the hospital! Space is limited and reservations are recommended.

For more information or to register for a Turtle Tales program please call (912)635-4444.

~Sarah Mathias, Education Intern

Thank you to all the visitors and volunteers that participated in the GSTC’s first annual Turtleween to make it a great success! It was great to see so many children (and parents) dressed in costume! Costume contests were held every hour so everyone could see these wonderful costumes! Two brothers had the most creative, homemade turtle costumes, which they colored themselves! They definitely won our hearts! (bottom right)

Visitors were ‘trick-or-treated’ to turtle-inspired, environmentally friendly games, crafts and activites including the sea turtle survival game and turtle toss (bean bags that is, not real turtles!), find a hatching, mystery boxes and paper plate turtles, face painting, pumpkin painting and cookie decorating! For those that didn’t have a treat bag, no worries, they got to make their own!

Some of the staff dressed in costumes with an educational message: What do different species of sea turtles like to eat?

(L to R): Dr. Bill Irwin (Director): SQUID-FAVORITE FOOD OF THE KEMP’S RIDLEY SEA TURTLE; Stefanie Ouellette (Education and Field Coordinator): SPONGE-FAVORITE FOOD OF THE HAWKSBILL SEA TURTLE; Alicia Marin (Public Outreach Educator): SEA GRASS-FAVORITE FOOD OF THE GREEN SEA TURTLE; Sarah Mathias (Education Intern): JELLYFISH-FAVORITE FOOD OF THE LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLE; and last but not least, Cade Stepp (JIA)-BYCATCH. Ok that’s not a food item for sea turtles, but it IS a sea turtle conservation issue!

Thanks again to all the volunteers: Sonya & Laurel Russell, Sally Rose, Richard Chewning (4-H), Mark Miller, Kathy Smith, Chad & Megan Glasscock, Ruth Ann Blackwell and daughter, John Miller (JIA), Cade Stepp (JIA)…we couldn’t have done it without you!!!

Stefanie Ouellette
Education and Field Coordinator

Macaroni is usually the first patient of the day to be treated. If you come at 11:00 when the talking treatments program begins, you will mostly likely see a funny, soft-shelled turtle sitting on the treatment table with a towel draped over his face. This is Macaroni. He is a pugnacious Florida soft shell turtle that was found on St. Simons Island. He was hit by a car and brought into a local veterinarian who called us. Unfortunately for Macaroni, he had his right rear leg barely attached to his body! The Georgia Sea Turtle Center’s veterinarian, Dr. Terry Norton, did an emergency amputation surgery that night! The turtle has since then been recovering with a few bumps in the road. He is eating on his own, but in order to get him to eat we must soak him only half way in water, keeping his rear half from getting wet. Macaroni has an infection in the amputation site that caused us to treat his wound as an open wound for the time being and he may need to have the femur of the leg removed in the near future! If you are interested in learning more about Macaroni, please come stop by the sea turtle center! He does usually get his treatment first thing in the morning (around 11:00 o’clock), but because this is a hospital all times are subject to change! We’ll keep you updated on Macaroni’s progress!

The sea turtle center has 5 sea turtle patients! When you visit, you may only see three of them. The other two patients are two hatchlings that were brought to the center from Florida, but at different times. The first was a turtle brought from Amelia Island, Florida. Her name, consequently, is Amelia! She was very lethergic when first brought in and emaciated. She was immediately placed on antibiotics and fluids and has since improved. She is eating well on her own at this point and especially loves sea food bits on the bottom of her tank to dive after!

Our other sea turtle patient that is not seen from the rehab pavillion is a small green sea turtle named “Sage”. Sage came to us from Florida as well. She was also thin and inactive when she arrived and has perked up as well. Sage is not quite the eater than Amelia is, although she does love her shrimp. Sage is still on antibiotics and is weighed daily to closely monitor her progress.

Both turtles are fed three times during the day. If you see someone sitting on a ladder near a cart holding a bamboo skewer, you’re watching our smaller patients being fed! If you’d like to see more of our patients close up – sign up for the Monday morning behind the scenes talk and you may get a change to encounter our smaller and more shy animals!