Rescue Team member Kerry McNally with Crater

We are very sorry to report that Crater Lake, the Kemp's ridley sea turtle with severe propeller wounds, died overnight. Crater's energy level dropped on Sunday and the blood work started to take a turn for the worse. Aquarium veterinarians adjusted fluid therapy and prescribed new medications in an effort to save Crater, but unfortunately were not successful.

With such severe injuries, this outcome is not completely unexpected, but we had been hopeful when Crater seemed to be doing well in the first week after admission. We will continue to study Crater's case today in an effort to understand more, which will hopefully help us treat turtles with similar injuries in the future.


-Kate

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A Kemp's ridley sea turtle with a severe fracture of the carapace after initial cleanup and stabilization.

Crater Lake or Crater for short was brought in yesterday afternoon off of a beach in Sandwich, Mass. The Aquarium's Marine Animal Rescue Team went down and met up with James and Dennis from Wellfleet Audubon. They had already taken the turtle off the beach and were ready to get the turtle packed up in our ambulance to head back to the Aquarium.

This was another Kemp's ridley that had a severe fracture to the carapace (top part of shell). It looks like it probably was made by a boat propeller. We cleaned up the shell a bit and determined that the fracture did not appear to involve any major organs. Dr Innis and Dr Cavin flushed out the areas of soft tissue under the fracture and tried to determine the best route of action.

After stabilizing the fracture, Crater was tucked in to the ICU for the night. So today we decided to put the turtle back together again!

So there is a little bit of a debate about our new turtle's name.

While part of the rescue group was off on the cape helping with a training session. Two of our other staff members were at the New England Aquarium receiving our second sea turtle of the season. Unlike Acadia this one fit the typical stranding scenario.

Our newest sea turtle of the 2009-2010 cold-stun season.

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we hosted our joint mass stranding response-training with our stranding partners from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). The IFAW stranding team covers the mainland Cape Cod, which is home to frequent mass stranding events. For those of you who are not familiar with the term mass stranding, this refers to the phenomenon of multiple dolphins or whales coming ashore at the same time.

These events can be quite large and range between 2 to 100 or more animals coming ashore at once. Managing these events takes a great many resources, careful planning, and a lot of training between the two organizations. The other key ingredient for successful mass stranding response is a large team of highly trained, dedicated volunteers.

Our mass stranding volunteers are required to attend a lot of training before responding to mass stranded dolphins and whales. Yesterday's class was an advanced course, which included lectures, breakout groups, practical skills and a written test. We are most fortunate to have a wonderful group of dedicated mass stranding volunteers, below are photos of them and the staff during the training workshop.

 
Misty from IFAW (second from left), Kate and Adam listening to another presenter and preparing to give their lectures. 

The New England Aquarium and IFAW rescue teams wish to thank everyone who helped make yesterday a successful day of training. We also thank the New England Aquarium Dive Club for providing the participants with breakfast. We especially thank all the volunteers who attended the workshop. It is in large part their dedication that makes it possible for us to provide the highest quality response and care to mass stranded whales and dolphins.

- Connie

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Acadia, the loggerhead sea turtle, is adjusting well to her tank. We took her out on Thursday to run blood work, do an exam, and give more fluids. Getting her out of the pool is no easy task!

While Acadia was out of her tank and after we received results from taking her blood, we performed an exam and gave her more fluids.

We received photos today from Joseph Tatulli, the person who first saw the loggerhead sea turtle that was rescued this weekend and reported it. Here is a picture of the turtle in Drummers Pond.


(Photo: Joseph Tatulli)

The first rescued turtle of the season, a loggerhead, in the back of an Audubon pickup. She takes up half the pickup bed!

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we received a BIG surprise from the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Our First cold-stunned sea turtle of the season has arrived. Typically the first turtles are small ridleys and green sea turtles, so this one was a real shocker.

She is an sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle. She was reported to the Wellfleet Audubon Sanctuary late Sunday evening as a juvenile leatherback that was swimming in a marsh. It was already getting dark and we hoped that the turtle would swim back out on its own. When they found it Monday morning it turned out to be this 175-lb. loggerhead.