After not a lot of solid sleep, we hit the road (and saw a City-Coyote crossing the main road near us in the dark) and arrived as planned, at first light. It was mild, temps in the low 40s, and it wasn't too windy. Still, it didn't take long to see our first turtle, a Kemps Ridley. It was on its back when first seen, not a good sign.
It seemed pretty dead to us but we did the normal protocol. We carried it up above the high-tide line, dug a small ditch, put the turtle in and covered it with wrack line seaweed. We marked it with a board and a pole and called it in.
Though it didn't look promising for that individual, at least we knew that turtles had indeed come in on the tide. On we went. Nearing the half-way point of the 4 miles out, we saw another Kemps. The flipper marks in the sand made this one look more promising.
Sure enough, when we picked this one up to bring above the tide line, his little flipper pushed weakly against our hands. It lifted its head up a bit for Andrea as she put him in his protective ditch and covered him.
That right there made everything worthwhile. The long drive, the lack of sleep, the everything... totally worth it.
Within a half-mile, Andrea spied one more Kemps up on the other side of a tide-pool. This one didn't look too good at all.
Still, we treated it as if it was alive.
We made it all the way out to the point with no more turtle sightings. I did see a bunch of Common Eiders, getting us #87 on the year.
Again, there were a few deceased seals out by the Point and we called them in.
The sanctuary asked us to pick the turtles up on our way back to the car and bring them in as their personnel was pretty busy. No problem: we had our trusty new sled.
(Plus, it was only three small Kemps-Ridleys... not a massive Loggerhead!)
While I stayed up higher, Andrea stayed near the shore looking to see if the low tide revealed any more turtles. She saw none but picked up other people's damn litter. I too had a pocketful of balloons. DO NOT RELEASE BALLOONS!!!!!!!!
We got the turtles loaded in to the Corolla and got them back to the sanctuary. The team quickly jumped into action, looking the turtles over. Bob actually said he thought they were all alive, but some of the movement (particularly on the last one) might have been muscle memory rather than reflexes. Still, our first seemed to be slightly alive and our star pupil, the second one (now known as #245), was moving its flippers while waiting for inspection.
Here he is in his banana box, ready to go to the aquarium for rehab.
All three were going North to the aquarium, though you'll notice that our third turtle, the box on the floor, has a sign that says "alive?".
We were toast on the drive home, hallucinating from a long day with little sleep and we were putting the word "plastron" into everything. (That's how we named this post.) Our friend Karen from the sanctuary called us later in the day to tell us that upon arrival at the aquarium, all three of our turtles were alive! Not that they'll definitely survive this ordeal but as of Friday afternoon, they were alive. *whew*
We weren't needed either Saturday or Sunday (I slept 16 hours straight Friday into Saturday!) as they had plenty of volunteers to walk. It's a good thing too because as I write this on Monday afternoon, they'd had 48 turtles wash up in 12 hours. Thankfully, there were people on the beaches to find them and the amazing crew at the sanctuary was ready to take care of them.
I couldn't possibly be more proud to be a (tiny) part of this group of dedicated people. The work they do gives me some faith in humanity. I'm honored to know them.
i love the banana boxes
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