Jan. 28, 2018 - Sea Turtle Release

On Saturday, January 20, Diana and I attended a sea turtle release held at St. George Island State Park. Here’s some background on this story.

Sea Turtles live in the Gulf of Mexico along the north Florida coast. Many of them feed in the shallow bays along the coast. Turtles are cold-blooded creatures, so their body temperature matches the temperature of their surroundings. In early January, the air temperature in this area dipped below freezing for several nights in a row and that made the water in the shallow bays very cold. Turtles that were in the bays got so cold that they were unable to move or eat. The term used to describe this condition is cold-stunned. Without help, many of them would have died. Volunteers rescued the cold-stunned turtles and took them to the Gulf Specimen Lab in Panacea, Florida, where they were nursed back to health by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). By January 20th, the turtles had recovered enough to be released back into the wild. St. George Island State Park was one of the locations chosen to release some of these turtles. These are the vehicles used to bring the turtles to the park.

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We arrived a couple of hours before the release time and people were already beginning to line up along the yellow tape barriers (see top photo.) More people arrived and 45 minutes later, the crowd looked like the bottom photo. Thanks to Diana for taking these photos on her cell phone. The crowd kept increasing and by the time of the actual release, I estimated between 400 and 500 people were there.

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Jack Rudloe is the founder of the Gulf Specimen Lab and he came all dressed up for the occasion, complete with white rubber boots. He checked the water in the Gulf and found it to be warm enough for the release.

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Jack had the honor of releasing the first turtle. As soon as the turtle was placed on the sand, it made a dash for the ocean. Then volunteers, FWS personnel, and Park Rangers brought about 40 more turtles, one by one, to the water’s edge and released them. It felt really good to see these endangered animals getting a second chance to live out their lives.

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Most of the turtles were Green Sea Turtles like this one.

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The shell on this turtle looks somewhat deformed. It probably had some kind of an accident that damaged the shell.

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The round, white objects on this turtle’s shell are Turtle Barnacles. I asked one of the people at Gulf Specimen Lab about them and she said they only grow on turtles and do not harm the turtle at all.

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This turtle didn’t look like the others and I was told it is a Kemp’s Ridley turtle. Notice the oval shape of the eye and the sharply hooked beak.

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Some of the turtles were so big it took a kid’s wading pool to hold them and two big, strong people to carry each one.

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Our Park Ranger friend, Melody, (on the right) is helping take this turtle into the water.

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As might have been expected, someone was using a drone to record the event.

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