Saving sea turtles

Volunteers prepare turtles by adding artificial tear ointment to their eyes for the 13-hour trip to Florida. ()

Volunteer Cynthia Ward of Fells Point hands off a Kemp's ridley sea turtle while she and fellow volunteers help to prepare them for release. ()

Volunteers at the National Aquarium in Baltimore prep a green sea turtle for a release into the ocean. ()

National Aquarium curator of animal rescue Jennifer Dittmar, left, gives a Kemp's ridley sea turtle fluids with help from volunteer Susan Christenbury, right, of Westminster. ()

Volunteers help load turtles into vans for transport to their release into the ocean in Florida. ()

“Go team turtle!” National Aquarium rehabilitation manager Kate Shaffer said Tuesday evening as she and National Aquarium Curator of Animal Rescue Jennifer Dittmar finished a meeting to prepare 12 volunteers for the task at hand. The team worked systematically to prepare 29 Kemp's ridley sea turtles and two green sea turtles for a 13-hour trip to Canaveral National Seashore in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., for their release.

Volunteers Cynthia Ward of Fells Point and Theresa Wunder of Parkville waded in the rehabilitation pool to net turtles and took turns handing them off to Ashley Middleton of York, Pa., who was part of a team working the “turtle elevator” — a storage container, moving straps and a carabiner engineered by Shaffer. Fellow volunteers walked turtles over to Dittmar and Shaffer, who gave them fluids and looked on as they received artificial tear ointment for their eyes and lubrication to the backs of their shells in preparation for the trip.

All of the turtles being prepared for release were stranded as ‘cold-stunned’ turtles along the Massachusetts coast. Dittmar described cold-stunning as a type of hypothermia for reptiles. Their body systems begin to slowly shut down, and their immune system becomes suppressed, which can cause secondary infections and long-term health concerns.

The turtles were pulled off beaches, and some received care at the New England Aquarium, National Marine Life Center and Woods Hole Science Aquarium in Massachusetts before joining the 13 turtles being rehabilitated in Baltimore.

The National Aquarium’s goal is to release animals as soon as they are medically cleared. Dittmar said, “It is bittersweet to see the turtles go, but our end goal is to get the turtles healthy and back into their natural environment.”

Volunteers helped to load turtles into banana boxes lined with cardboard and towels and transported them safely into vans for the drive to Florida. They stopped to pick up three more turtles being rehabilitated by the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach before all 34 turtles were successfully released back into the ocean on Wednesday afternoon. Shaffer said, “It is a great sense of accomplishment whenever we can release a large group of animals back into their natural environment, especially when we team up with other partners within the stranding network to contribute to the conservation of endangered species.”

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