On the Road: Sea Turtle Release, Osterville MA

One of the great things about living on Cape Cod is the tremendous number of opportunities to get involved with ongoing work to preserve the environment and to protect wildlife. Gynn volunteers at the Humane Society's Cape Wildlife Center, and we both are involved in saltmarsh monitoring through the Association To Preserve Cape Cod (see my recent article on fish monitoring with the APCC).

On Monday, we were among a large crowd of spectators who came to Dowses Beach in Osterville MA to watch a group of sea turtles get released into the wild.

An area of the beach was roped off and manned by volunteers from the New England Aquarium in Boston and the National Marine Life Center in Buzzard's Bay. The turtles had washed up on beaches over the winter, and were rescued. Most had been suffering from hypothermia. They were nursed back to health at aquarium facilities and were now ready for release into the wild.

The turtles arrived in style in the New England Aquarium's marine animal rescue ambulance.

First into the water was a 100-pound loggerhead sea turtle. He was brought out wrapped in wet towels and carried to the beach by some of the volunteers and veteranary team.

The big turtle headed right for the surf and disappeared into the waves.

Next up were a young green sea turtle (which I didn't get a chance to photograph) and a group of nine Kemp's Ridley sea turtles.

Kemp's Ridley turtles are the most endangered sea turtles in the world. They are also the smallest. They had a chance to pose for photos a bit before it was time for them to got back to the ocean.

There are estimated to be only about one thousand Kemp's Ridley sea turtles left in the wild. That means that this release represented almost one percent of the entire species.

Two of the turtles were equipped for satellite tracking. You can follow the movements of sea turtles including this group at Seaturtle.org.

After a few minutes of meet-and-greet, the turtles were lined up to go home.

A few of the turtles seemed a bit confused at first, but the slowly headed down the beach...

...And into the sea.

One of the pieces of information that was passed out by the volunteers was a brochure, published by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service containing information on who to contact if you encounter a stranded sea turtle or if a sea turtle gets caught in your fishing gear. You can see the online version of that brochure here.

For further coverage of this event and more pictures, you can read the writeup in the Cape Cod Times.