Sea Turtle Hospital News

The turtle hospital has its own set of seasons. In addition to nesting, hatching and cold-stun season we have the one we’re in now, the one that our year-round volunteers fear the most: it’s the "OMG the college interns are gone and we have twenty-seven sick turtles and we still have open house for a few weeks" season.

Even though we released sixty fully recovered turtles from June 2008 - June 2009 those tanks barely had a chance to cool off before we started filling them up again. And the incoming sick and wounded are the most critical and fragile we’ve seen in many years. Some of the "Barnacle Bills" were so emaciated they were almost flat: not all made it. After a full summer of food, treatment and TLC a lot of these critters are still on the edge. Big mama Loggerhead, "Bogue" remains about a hundred pounds underweight even though we’re throwing as much fish at her as she’ll eat.

Our "Living Dead" turtles are finally starting to show significant improvement to their skin and carapaces, but it’s taken months of daily treatment with gallons of betadine baths, followed by applications of silvadine and triple antibiotic ointment to get them to look half-way normal. These are the turtles that come in with the flesh literally rotting off of their bones: flesh so soft and fragile that you can barely touch it without breaking it. Their shells are usually just as soft, and one of our little ones will forever carry a depression that looks exactly like a fingerprint.

Then we have the victims of boat and propeller impacts. The most heartbreaking case was when we received word from the Wrightsville Beach crew that a little Green we released in June, "Lockwood" was found dead in the waterway, sliced by a propeller less than a month after we set him free. More than a few of these unfortunate creatures made it into our hospital only long enough to die, surrounded by our volunteers who could only stand by helplessly and comfort them at the end. But we do have one success story at the moment, "Ophelia." She arrived with a mangled rear carapace with lots of missing bone and a whole lot of displaced and exposed muscle tissue. Although it wasn’t a fresh injury it was sure scary looking. We had to wait for our vet to positively identify all the "stuff" that was just hanging out there on her rear end. This little Loggerhead is already responding extremely well to her daily treatment, even though she has to come out of her tank and spend quite some time on the exam table while we tend to her wounds. When she’s finally ferried back to her home she’s sporting the latest in turtle-wear, a gauze fishnet stocking that holds her medication and bandages in place.

As the summer wears down caring for these turtles is looking like a snap compared to what we’re going to be facing in another month. We’re running out of space, and we have very few patients on the short list for release before the waters start to cool. We can only shove so many tanks into 850 square feet, and most of our patients are big turtles requiring a minimum of a five-foot tank. It’s going to take a miracle, and an angel dropping off a check for $350,000 so we can begin construction on our new building.

Hospital Open House: We will be open the week prior to Labor Day, August 31st thru Sept. 5th. Check back for possible additional days the week of Labor Day. We open daily, except Wednesday and Sunday, from 2-4 PM. The gift shop is also open during these hours. Lines can be long so come prepared with sunscreen and umbrellas for shade. Your minimum contribution of $2 per adult and $1 per child will help us reach that final $350,000 we need to build our new facility, and anything above and beyond is greatly appreciated. We’re behind the big blue water tank in Topsail Beach. And for those of you planning ahead, we’re planning ahead, too. We expect to have a limited opening during Autumn with Topsail, the weekend of October 17-18.

Turtle Talks: Continue every Wednesday through Labor Day from 3:45 - 4:45 PM at the Surf City Community Center. This informative, family-oriented program is fun and has hands-on turtle stuff and handouts for all ages. Our program is free but all donations are gratefully accepted.

Topsail Turtle Project
The nesting is coming to an end but the hatching is heating up. You’ll see our volunteers sitting near nests that have been ramped in anticipation of a hatch, standing by ready to lend a benign hand. If you’re lucky enough to be around during a hatch remember that our volunteers are in charge. You’re welcome to stay if you can sit quietly and follow their instructions. All sea turtles are federally protected animals. Harassing or interfering with them or their nests in any way is punishable by a hefty fine and/or imprisonment. Please report any incidents of nesting, hatching, injury, stranding or harassment to our Director of Beach Operations, Terry Meyer at 910-470-2880 immediately.

Lobster Dinner and Auction
Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 24th. We’ll be accepting donations for the silent and live auctions in a few short weeks. Details to follow.

NO YARD SALE!
Please do not drop off anything at our hospital. We had to discontinue our yard sale in 2008 due to the loss of a venue and a shortage of volunteers to organize and run it.

Questions, comments or suggestions for stories
Contact me at: flippers@embarqmail.com.