It's 2:30 a.m. when my alarm sounds. Though, I haven't really been sleeping. Today is the day we are bringing 17 of our sea turtle to Virginia to return home to the great big blue!
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| Returning the turtles to the sea! |
After arriving at the Quincy facility for 4 a.m. we quickly start pulling turtles for final exams and to give them fluids for the close to 12 hour car ride down to our release site.
In the first picture above, the turtle assembly line is in place as one of our interns Elizabeth (right) and our volunteer Sarah (left) bring the turtles to be loaded onto the truck. In the second picture, another of our great volunteers Kali checks off each turtle as they get carefully placed into the truck by Kerry.
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| The fully loaded van with all 17 turtles and gear ready to make the long journey south. Of course not as long a journey as Charlie and I took last year. We were ready to leave at 7 a.m. |
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| Once at the release site upon opening the back door of the SUV we were greeted by this lovely site. Beast trying to get a good breath of the sea air! |
The ridley Spiderman returns to the sea above. Of course always the photo lover the turtle had to stop to get one more good profile shot before making a final jaunt to the water.
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| Heading down to the release site with the last batch of turtles. |
Getting ready to release Juggernaut the loggerhead. After the turtle was back in the water Charlie and I were able to follow the wake the turtle created and saw him come up for one last breath before heading into deeper waters.
A beautiful end to a beautiful day. Hope those turtles are enjoying the delicious blue crab!
-Adam
beautiful story! just visited the NEA yesterday june 13, 2012. the aquarium never ceases to amaze me. born and brought up in boston, now the 4th generation is visiting the NEA!
ReplyDeleteIt rivals many others i have visited in the usa. the back pool where the old sealions, and otters used to be housed looks wonderful. the jellies, and rays are a wonderful site. thank you jan walsh
ps my daughter becky volunteered there for 4 years through her college years. now is visiting with her children.