Dr. Norton feeling for fish hook before surgery.

Close to 5 PM on July 3, 2009, a juvenile Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle was rushed into our hospital.  I happened to be standing at the treatment window talking about the snapping turtle who was getting bandage changes, when the doors flew open and an intern came in with the little sea turtle.  I noticed right away the intern was holding onto a string coming out of the turtle’s mouth.

A family was fishing off of Jekyll Island when they accidentally hooked the Kemp’s Ridley, who has been named Utah.  Utah swallowed the hook, so we held on to the line with forceps to prevent the hook from going any further.  We didn’t waist any time attempting to remove the hook.  Utah had x-rays done, and we also put a tiny camera down his throat to see if we could remove the fish hook without surgery.  Unfortunately, the fish hook wasn’t going to come out that easy.  Dr. Norton had to make an incision in Utah’s throat to remove the hook.  The surgery went well, and Utah is recovering just fine.  Utah is still at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center while the turtle heals, so come visit before this brave little turtle goes back to its ocean home.

Nicki Pinnell
Education Intern ’09

Utah in recovery tank after surgery.

In carrying on the tradition of “having the final word” the teachers of the second week of the teacher workshop have a few choice words for the folks at GSTC. Fear not, for they are words of gratitude and elation over the insanely busy roller-coaster ride of a week we have had here at GSTC.

When we met on Sunday morning we knew had tough shoes to fill after the leatherback adventure of our counterparts in June. So we quickly dawned our turtle caps and thought “turtley thoughts” in hopes that it would bring us good fortune throughout our time here on Jekyll. We must have been taught well by the GSTC on how to think those positive thoughts because it seemed we could do no wrong all week. Every one of the teachers was able to see nesting turtles during beach patrol. Each group delivered a successful turtle walk and presentation, except for the minor mishap with the mosquitoes (but it’s mother nature we’re dealing with, so it happens). Education presentations charmed our audiences and even pushed the boundaries by doing things no teacher volunteer had done before (pat on the back to our brave patient update presenters and the crew of so many voices that delivered the puppet show!). We were even incredibly lucky to have been deemed worthy enough by Dr. Norton and his slew of staff in teal to be part of releasing a sea turtle back to their natural environment and then invited to watch how the magic of it all happens when a new patient is brought in to the center.

So now on to the those words of gratitude we promised…

Dr. Terry Norton you are the “keystone species” of the GSTC. Without you the vision would never have become a reality and countless numbers of turtles may never have lived to tell a tale like that of Scute’s Ocean Adventure to their ocean dwelling companions after release. We are amazed at your compassion for all animals and at your ability to understand the needs of these turtles without truly being able to communicate with them. The world owes a debt of gratitude to you and the services you provide. Our hats off to you and your amazing staff you took us right in and put us body soaking deep into turtle husbandry (Thank to you too Griffin – teal always looks better wet!)!

Alicia, Kelly, & Teddy we were shocked by the wealth of knowledge, skill, creativity and patience that you possess to share with the children and public about our endangered Georgia sea turtles. We were thrilled and honored to work side-by-side with you all. We greatly appreciated you guidance and encouragement as we challenged ourselves with the deliverance of our education programs and we are thrilled that we have set new goals for next year’s teachers. A huge thank you to the education interns; you have no idea how much the programs that you develop while at the center will impact those who visit the center. Keep working hard to develop new and intriguing programs (we truly understand the frustration and excitement that comes along with planning a lesson). You have encouraged us to continue our relationship with the GSTC through additional volunteering adventures and developing grant programs and such. Our poor little brains are just going and going and going (Thank goodness they are larger than a turtle’s!).

A final thank you to our brave and hard working professors. This “vacation” would not have been possible without all the hard work and behind the scenes things that you did to get this grant for the program. We owe you tanks of gas for chofering us all over the island to and from our many activities! Dr. Schriver, you are a trooper! We were astounded that you tracked out to the beach three nights in a row for what seemed like a never ending walk with beach patrol (God Bless STARBUCKS!!!). Dr. Clark, it was a relief to not have to carry a camera around to capture all the memorable moments of our week here. We can’t wait to get a glimpse at all the photos that our brains have been trying to store in that big memory tank. It will be great to relive the week through your eyes!

To the general public, yes we have a thank you for you as well. We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of you who educate yourself about these animals and to all of you who continue to support the turtles after visiting the center. Keep spreading the word about these endangered animals and maybe, just maybe, we can live to see the day when all sea turtles will be treated with the respect they deserve and they will finally come off the endangered species list!

Happy turtling to all…

Mary, Ella, Charlotte, Ginny, Maria, and Michael

We at the GSTC would also like to thank the teacher workshop participants for their hard work and excitement throughout the week.  We hope you all have enjoyed the experience and can take what you have learned and experienced here throughout the southeast.  We look forward to seeing you back at the GSTC soon!

July 9, 2009

The teacher workshop participants continued to rotate through the different area of the center.  Read below and Maria Salgado and Michael Cabrera share their exciting day!

Another terrific and exciting day. Group 2 (Ginny and Charlotte), led the Turtle walk and did a great job with their presentation. Maria and Michael (group 3) presented the Amazing Adaptations to elementary school children. The children were so good that Maria is seriously considering changing from high school to elementary school. We learned a lot in the process.

Professor Schriver proved her amazing endurance one more time by accompanying Maria, Michael, Simon, and Stephanie on the Turtle Patrol. We saw two false crawls. The first one had the looks of a successful crawl, but Simon and Stephanie did not find any eggs. In the second one, we saw the turtle. According to the identification tags, this turtle had already laid eggs before in the island this year. Trying to figure out what could have possibly distracted her, we saw some very bright lights coming from a building. She was a strong and beautiful animal, so strong that, despite being held down by Simon, Michael, and Maria, she almost threw Professor Schriver, who was holding her rear, on a ditch, when Stephanie tried to take a blood sample.

In between the Amazing Adaptations presentation and the Turtle Patrol, Charlotte and Michael decided to change careers and declared their intention of going after David Letterman’s job. They started by polishing their public speaking skills doing the Patient Update in the hospital wing of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. They did a tremendous job; good luck in you future endeavors, Charlotte and Michael! I hope they remember us when they are rich and famous.

Maria Salgado and Michael Cabrera

Hello again!

If you do not remember me, my name is Amanda.  I am one of the six 2009 patrol interns, and I have a short story to tell you.

Once upon a time, there was a female loggerhead sea turtle that nested near the Jekyll Island Club Hotel’s Beach Pavilion (otherwise known as Edy’s ice cream bar) on Jekyll Island.  She was a beautiful adult of 30-35 years, who had a plethora of epibiota on her carapace.  The life on her shell included things like tunicates, barnacles, bryozoans, bioluminescing plankton, and more!

The three on-duty patrol interns, John, Ashley, and Amanda, were amazed by the loveliness of this particular turtle (whom they appropriately named, “Turtle”).  They admired her as she crawled from the ocean to the dunes, body pitted, and dug her upside-down light bulb shaped egg chamber.

While Turtle was laying her eggs, the patrol interns turned on their red headlamps and got to work.  They noted the time and location of Turtle’s emergence.  They measured the length and width of her carapace.  They scanned her shoulders for a microchip PIT tag and looked carefully at her front flippers to see if they were pierced with metal tags.

Luckily for the excited interns, this Turtle was tagged.  She was a returning nester from earlier in the summer!

The interns discussed the previous emergence (EM29) of Turtle (EM90) while they waited for her to drop all of her clutch and cover her nest.  It seemed that Turtle had visited Jekyll Island once before that summer, but she had not nested.  John, Ashley, and Amanda reviewed their saturation tagging data sheet and found that Turtle had been tagged by them on her last emergence.  This made the interns very happy; they had inserted her tags correctly the first time around!

When Turtle was finished laying, she covered her nest with her dexterous hind flippers.  Then, she used her front flippers to camouflage her nest.  She wouldn’t want any predators (such as raccoons) to easily find her precious eggs, now would she?

Turtle left the happy interns some time after 3:15 am.  The interns had to move on before Turtle left her body pit.  However, before they did, Amanda wrote a sand note to early-rising beach combers.  It read:

“Please, do not walk on turtle crawl ”

Ironically, Turtle crawled right over Amanda’s note!  Did she plan it?

I hope you enjoyed my story! Until next time….

Sincerely,
Amanda Noble
Sea Turtle Patrol Intern

What a grand finale for an awesome week!  The morning began with some of us presenting a puppet show for a group of small children.  They were so receptive and fun and it was really nice to see how the information about sea turtles could be adapted to their level and attention span.  After a quick lunch we left for the beach because Dr. Schriver wanted to show us a “Crazy Crawl” from the night before.  Well, when we arrived at the beach, we did not see a crawl, but a “Sea of Teal” crossing the dunes with one of our favorite sea turtles, Camden!  The entire week we asked if there would be a release and everyone said that there probably would not, none of the turtles were ready, but the Turtle Crew surprised us and released Camden, a green sea turtle, back into the ocean. 

That seemed like enough fun for one day, but there was much more in store for us.  Next on the agenda was an Eco/Dolphin Tour.  While on the tour, we got to observe about 20 dolphins feeding along the south end of the island.  During the boat trip, the captain pointed out a beach that contained fossilized sharks teeth.  This led us to our next adventure, “Shark Tooth Beach”.  After a nice hike through the woods and marsh we finally made it to the beach and began our hunt.  Searching for the fossilized teeth could be compared to an oversized Easter egg hunt and in the end we were able to find a few teeth along with the shoes we had lost in the sinking mud.  

After cleaning off the marsh mud, it was time for our final dinner.  Alicia and Sarah joined us and we were presented with a teal turtle pin and certificates of gratitude for our work at the GSTC.  I personally thought we should have been presenting them with certificates of gratitude for all of their hard work and help to make this amazing experience possible.  While at dinner, Alicia mentioned that we should stop by the GSTC because they were receiving a new arrival from Florida.  A female loggerhead weighing over 200 pounds made the long journey from Cedar Key when she was spotted floating in the ocean by a teacher!  Being able to observe Dr. Norton and his staff work so hard and meticulously on the turtle was truly an incredible experience and the perfect ending for our wonderful week here on Jekyll Island!

~ Ella McAfee