Visitors crowd around a large glass window at the South Carolina Aquarium hoping to get a glimpse of what biologists see far too frequently; man’s impact on the health of sea turtles.
On the other side, a team of veterinarians works to save seven new patients at the Sea Turtle Care Center in Charleston, including four green sea turtles and two Kemp’s ridleys.
The Patients
Temperatures are taken. Antibiotics are given. Hooks are removed from the mouths of shelled creatures.
“Our sea turtle stranding season has definitely started strong,” says Care Center manager Melissa Ranly.
“It’s clear that sea turtles have arrived along the South Carolina coast and are facing some unforgiving impacts out there.”
Injuries
The green sea turtle patients are all juveniles.
There’s Eleanor who arrived with a hook in its flipper. Strudel washed ashore lethargic and emaciated, suffering from corneal ulcers in both eyes. Biscuit was taken in dehydrated with one flipper dislocated and another damaged. Frittata was found with an ear infection. And Hashbrown, covered in parasites, appeared to have been sick for some time.
The Kemp’s ridleys patients are young too.
Poptart had to undergo surgery to remove a hook deep in its esophagus. Pancake swallowed plastic and had to have a hook pried from its flipper.
Lessons
The aquarium says injuries from boat strikes as well as hooks and lines account for a third of its cases, with boat strikes being the deadliest. But rapidly changing water temperatures, algal blooms and a plethora of discarded plastic are causing concern too.
Biologists say turtles, which have survived millions of years, are a key stone species. That means they are an important part of their environment, influencing other species around them. Their loss could disrupt the natural order.
The seven new sea turtle patients at the South Carolina Aquarium will spend weeks, even months being rehabilitated before they’re released back into the wild. Aquarium caregivers hope people who come face to face with their treatment and recovery will be inspired to learn more about protecting them.
