Sea Turtle Rescue

 

Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehab

I am fortunate to be acquainted with Kathy Zagzebski, one of the leaders at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City, NC.  They rescue injured sea turtles, rehabilitate them and release them back into the ocean.  They also monitor sea turtle nests and protect them until they hatch, giving them a better chance of survival.  Of course, they collect data and offer information to raise turtle safety awareness to the public.  Most turtles are injured due to human causes.  They can swallow fishhooks or get entangled and hit by a boat’s propeller.  Plastic is a big culprit in their sicknesses and death.  Many turtles die every year due to ingesting debris they mistake for food.

 A group of my friends and myself were privileged to stay with Kathy Z at her home for a weekend recently.  She gave us a personal tour of the rehabilitation facility, and we observed the turtles in their tanks and learned so much about them.  The second night we were there, we visited a “Sea Turtle Nest Analysis” location.  This nest had hatched 3 days prior, and the protocol is to wait 3 days then dig up the nest and count the eggshells.  The area around the nest was roped off and a nice smooth “ramp” had been cleared to the water’s edge.  The nest was in the dune area of the beach.  It was possible that some of the hatchlings might emerge.  A volunteer, one of many hundred in the project, carefully dug into the sand and removed a total of 105 eggs, 87 hatched eggshells and 18 that had not hatched at all and were not viable.  However, there were no hatchlings left behind.  While we didn’t get to witness the hatchlings, it was good news that they all had made their way out on their own.

 After that we ventured further down the beach to another site that was being “watched” by volunteers because it had reached the gestation period and could hatch at any time.  Again, it was roped off and a group of volunteers were there.  They had waited all night the night before.  They took a device that picks up sound and placed it in the sand next to the nest, and with headphones they could hear if any activity was occurring.  They heard the “rain stick sound” that indicates some movement in the sand.  By now it is dark out, and the moon is full, the smooth sand ramp is in place.  It is the perfect combination for a hatching.  The baby turtles go toward the light of the moon when they are born.  They have to make the journey down to the ocean on their own.  They are magnetically imprinted to the sand to give them a reference to return to the same spot one day.  This is why the volunteers do not pick them up and physically move them to the water.  In many instances, artificial light from streetlights or nearby beach homes may confuse the babies and they may go toward the wrong light source, leading them away from the ocean.  That is why some of time, the nest is relocated to a more remote spot and/or the volunteers have to ask that the streetlights be extinguished, and the homeowners turn off their lights.  We watched alongside the group of volunteers until 8 pm then we left and returned to Kathy’s home.  I had a suspicion that this might be the night, but of course, there was no guarantee.  Sure enough, Kathy received a text message that evening at about 11 pm that the nest had hatched.  While I would have loved to have seen that happening in person, I was overjoyed to know that we had been a small part of the process.  We had come alongside the group and asked numerous questions, as did other observers gathered there.  We had learned so much about the necessary work involved in protecting the sea turtles from harm.  It was quite an experience.

Tammy Harvey

8/21/2024