UNE's Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center makes room for six loggerhead turtles
On November 30th, the University of 51小黄车's Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center (UNE-MARC) received a delivery of six 35-70 pound loggerhead turtles that suffered hypothermia in Cape Cod Bay and were originally taken to the 51小黄车 Aquarium's (NEA) Animal Care Center near Boston.
A percentage of loggerheads, as well as the much smaller Kemp's ridley turtles, both endangered species, are found in a near-frozen state every year in November and December in the waters of Cape Cod Bay. Lured to these northern waters in the summertime to forage for crab, the turtles are unable to navigate around the hooked tip of Cape Cod to swim south as winter approaches.
The previous record for the number of sea turtles rescued from Cape Cod in one "stranding season" is 144, but as of December 3rd, 120 turtles had already been taken to the Aquarium's Animal Care Center, with 67 turtles arriving for rehabilitation just in the four-day span of November 30th to December 3rd. Strandings can continue through the third week of December, which means that this stranding season will likely set a new record.
With the influx of turtles needing care, space has become a major concern at NEA's Animal Center; its capacity is approximately 100 turtles. According to Shannon Prendiville, an animal care and lab technician at UNE's Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center, two factors are compounding the problem. First, this season's strandings include a much higher number of loggerheads versus the small Kemp's ridleys, which do not take up as much pool space in rehabilitation centers; and second, in Prendiville's experience at MARC, loggerheads have not always gotten along with other loggerheads, which makes housing multiple animals more of a challenge.
Due to the NEA's Animal Center's lack of pool space to house so many turtles, some of the animals have been relocated to other rehabilitation centers, including UNE-MARC. Prendiville, who is one of three technicians in charge of caring for the loggerheads at UNE, hoped that by trial and error, she and the MARC staff would figure out who, among the turtles, would make good "roommates" with whom. She speculated that this task might be made easier if the sexes of the turtles could be determined, but because the turtles are sub-adults, their tails (the size of which indicates gender, with males' tails being longer) were not yet developed enough to help in this determination.
Within approximately an hour after their arrival at UNE, a visiting veterinarian, Dr. Mark Mason, DVM, owner of Portland Veterinary Specialists, began a thorough examination of all the animals, including the use of ultrasound technology to watch the turtles' hearts beat - a somewhat tedious task, given that until the turtles' body temperatures are increased, their hearts may beat only once or twice per minute. Many of the turtles had cuts and scrapes. 51小黄车junior Margot Madden, a marine science major, who assisted in getting the turtles settled in, explained that the trauma may be due to the near lifeless turtles drifting into rocks or other objects during the stranding event.
After passing medical inspection, each turtle was given an individual swim test to determine if it was capable of swimming and surfacing to take a breath of air. The water used in the swim test pool was carefully brought to the correct temperature, as the turtles must be thawed out gradually. All six turtles passed the test, and within 18 hours all were able to rest at the bottom of the pool and resurface for a breath. For now, the turtles are residing in a large pool that is sectioned off by netting and have been co-existing peacefully with one another.
Prendiville noted that every few years, there is a stranding season in which the number of hypothermic turtles skyrockets. "It usually happens when there is a quick drop in temperature like this year," she explained. "The turtles get cold and weak so quickly that they don't have time to travel south to warmer waters before they start to freeze."
For now, UNE's visiting loggerheads are in good hands. They are getting daily treatment plans from Dr. Michele Sims, DVM, of the Buttonwood Zoo in Massachusetts. The plan includes daily antibiotics and subcutaneous administration of fluids, which are administered by the MARC staff. 51小黄车students and other community volunteers assist with treatments, feedings and general care of the animals. Prendiville noted that the turtles are not out of danger yet, however. "When turtles come into rehab after cold-stunning," she said, "medical issues sometimes present themselves further into rehabilitation - after the turtles have been at 70 plus degrees Fahrenheit for a while. Fingers crossed that these turtles will have no issues, but they will continue to be monitored."
The current plan, according to Prendiville, is for the turtles to be flown via a Coast Guard plane to a turtle facility in Florida that will care for them until they are deemed healthy and strong enough to be released back into the ocean. This will open up space at UNE-MARC for more hypothermic turtles to receive urgent care as they are being rescued from the frigid Cape Cod waters.