The sea turtle transport and release was a success!

All the turtles did very well on the ride to Georgia. We stopped several times to do health checks and spritz them down with salt water. The drive took about 20 hours and went as well as we could have expected. Dr. Terry Norton and his staff at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) on Jekyll Island were ready and waiting for us when we arrived. First we situated Route into his new tank for additional rehabilitation (I'll blog more on this soon) and then we headed to the beach with the others (at right).

The Staff at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center secured a release zone down at the beach so we could organize the animals and allow the public to watch from a safe distance.


Bruce and Godzilla (loggerhead sea turtles) were released first. They are both quite large and we wanted to give them plenty of room. Both lumbered down the beach toward the water. Bruce stopped at one point and started heading lateral to the water. Dr. Norton re-oriented him and off he went into the deep blue.

We released all the Kemp's ridley and green sea turtles at the same time and watched them crawl down to the water. It was truly exciting to see the turtles that came into the NEAq debilitated and in some cases barely alive last fall now racing back to the water!

- Connie

Connie will be posting about the release of the rescued sea turtles soon.
In the meantime, here is a photo and video from yesterday.












Here's the full 9-minute video of the release sent to us by Michael Schaffer of Our Net News..

A turtle in a transport box, ready to go.

Godzilla is ready for transport.

This is Godzilla the loggerhead sea turtle. He is one of our larger turtle patients for 2008. He was found cold-stunned on a Cape Cod beach in November. He is about two feet long, and weighs nearly 60 pounds. During his time at the New England Aquarium he had blood tests, x-rays, electrolyte injections and antibiotics. We gradually warmed him up to 75 degrees, and he is doing well.

After we stabilize turtle patients at the Aquarium we sometimes send them to other sea turtle hospitals to complete their rehabilitation. This picture shows him in a kennel crate, padded with towels for a car ride to another hospital. He will hopefully be released from Cape Cod in the summer of 2009.

- Dr. Innis