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.

Rescue Team member Kerry McNally with Crater

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.

Crater's propeller injuries immediately after rescue.

-Kate

Labels: Crater, Kemp's ridley sea turtle, propeller strike

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.

You can see the red lines indicating where the probable propeller strike occured (Left).
After initial cleanup and stabilization (Right).

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.

Keeping with this year's National Parks theme, this turtle is named after Crater Lake National Park

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!

The team getting ready for the procedures.

After cleaning the area and adding some topical anesthetic our Veterinarians started to piece together the carapace. After the carapace was in place we wanted to try and bring the coelomic cavity (the space between all the organs in the body cavity) back into contact with the shell. So we started a vacuum-assisted closure. This will create negative pressure in the crack and slowly draw the coelomic lining towards the shell.

Putting the shell back together.

Placing Glad Press and Seal and Tegaderm to help create suction.

Dr Innis starting the Vacuum pump to create negative pressure.

Crater tucked into the ICU to allow the negative pressure to work.

The turtle is very active and the blood work currently does not show any major anomalies. We are hopeful for a positive outcome!

-Adam

Labels: Crater, propeller strike, Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary

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We rescue and rehabilitate stranded, injured and diseased marine animals from throughout the New England coastal region. Established in 1968, our Marine Animal Rescue Team has responded to thousands of calls to provide medical treatment for whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea turtles.

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Dr. Charlie Innis
Connie Merigo
Adam Kennedy
Kerry McNally

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Crater Lake Loses a Weeklong Struggle

Meet Crater Lake - A rescued sea turtle struck by a boat propeller

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