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| Some of the 27 Kemp's ridley sea turtles that will be released on Sunday! |
One loggerhead and twenty seven critically endangered Kemp’sridley sea turtles will be heading home to the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday
morning!
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| Lindsay (one of our spring interns) holding 256 our loggerhead that will be released. |
However, prior to the release every turtle needs to get a
PIT tag.
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| Applying the tag into the front flipper triceps. |
This tag is the same type that people can have their
cats and dogs receive, so if lost they can be returned to their owners when
found. If these turtles are found again (hopefully nesting females) then the field
researcher equipped with a PIT tag scanner will be able to read the unique number and
alert the Cooperative Marine Turtle Tagging Program out of the University of
Florida at Gainesville. [Learn more about tagging our sea turtles in this Google+ Hangout!]
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| PIT tag reader scanning for the inserted PIT tag. |
If the turtle is large enough they also get tagged in the
rear flipper. These are called Inconel tags. These tags are quite obvious and
do not need a scanner to find. We do not have to tag small turtles so as not to
increase drag on the turtle.
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| Applying the inconel tag |
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| After the application |
This transport will also include turtles from NationalAquarium in Baltimore, University of New England in Biddeford ME, NationalMarine Life Center of Bourne, the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research andPreservation Long Island, and the Virginia Aquarium.
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| From our release last year in NY. Multiply this by 6 and add a few more turtles and it will give you a rough idea of what Sunday will look like! |
We hope to be including some special features for you all.
We are still working out some last minute details. But for now, watch our
Twitterverse #seaturtletrek
-Adam
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