Home Base 1

Well I finally have internet! I’d like to thank the kind folks at the Marine Lab IT office for troubleshooting me through all the problems! Now I can fill everyone in on what I’ve been up to!

Let me start out with a quick run down of what I have been doing every mornig at the Topsail Beach Sea Turtle Hospital:

Chop up some fish, squid and shrimp to feed to the turtles. Blood and guts get everywhere, but the turtles definitely know what you are up to! It’s a very exciting in fun time! Sometimes we get romaine lettuce to give to the greens, and the big loggerheads get big ole fish heads! Vitamins and calcium pill sget hidden in squid tails to make them more palatable (squid = ice cream for sea turtles)
Feed the turtles! This is definitely the most fun part of the day! Toss the food in and let the foraging begin! (the turtles get half an hour to forty five minutes to feed)
Now for the icky part… we have to scoop all the turtle waste and leftover fish bits out of the tanks. Generally each tank gets two or three rounds of scooping to make sure that everything is out.
Next we scrub down the big loggerheads. They really like being rubbed with brooms and it helps keep them clean! Some of the smaller Kemp’s and green turtles get taken out and bathed and anyone that still need treatment get taken care of (betadine/ointment applied etc etc)
Lastly we clean everything up! We wipe down tanks, clean dishes, mop floors, and make sure that tanks are topped off and that the pumps are running right (we’ve had to do a lot of work on the pumps in the few days, the system is doing something funky)

So lets meet the cast! Who do we have actually staying at the hospital? There are currently 19 turtles in residence and believe me, it is crowded! There are 3 greens, 3 Kemp’s and the rest are loggerheads. Jean (the director) says that 12-13 are candidates for release this summer (June 6th! Save the date!). Most of the turtles there right now are either fully recovered or are well on their way. Each turtle definitely has an individual personality, here are some of my favorites:

Lennie – This Kemp’s is blind in both eyes and its highly unlikely that he will ever be released. This doesn’t stop him for swimming around constantly!

Jersey Girl – A Kemp’s missing one front flipper (you may remember her from the ISTS conference this year). She is super sweet, but a very finicky eater. She tries to get away with only eating squid so we have taken to stuffing little bits of fish in squid tails to try and trick her.

J. B. and Frosty – Two awesome little green turtles! J. B. is veeeeery tiny, and Frosty is chubby and cute! Both are very feisty and can be a handful when taken out of their tanks!

Kayak – This big loggerhead barely takes time out of swimming to eat! Very appropriately named.

Shackleford - Kayak’s polar opposite, a loggerhead that loves to nap and is very calm even through feeding time.

And there are humans too!!!

Jean Beasley – The director of the hospital. A sweet woman with years of turtle experience. Saving turtles is this woman’s life and she does it amazingly! No injury is too big or too small for her to handle! A wealth of knowledge and a pleasure to be around, Jean is certainly tops! She gives hugs and smiles with wild abandon!
Vicki – When asked where her mechanical knowledge comes from she simply says “I used to race cars, Volkswagons actually.” Her whole family races and she not only takes care of the turtles but also helps to maintain the pumps and filtering systems at the hospital. She likely taking things apart almost as much as she loves helping turtles

Peggy – Another super sweet woman! She takes care of turtles and interns! She is responsible for the intern house (which I might say is reeeeeally nice) and she runs a tight ship, everything is clean and well stocked… she even came by yesterday afternoon with homemade macaroni and cheese for me! What more could a volunteer ask for!?

Well that’s all for now! This is “Home Base” Signing off!

~Andrew

P.S. I have pics but I forgot the cable to download them… plenty of turtley goodness in the future I promise!