Saturday, November 14, 2009

To Crab or Not to Crab? That is the Question.

The goal of rehabilitation is to release the animals back into the wild, and there are many things we do here to make sure our sea turtles are ready. One part is to offer the turtles live food like they would eat in the wild, and for Kemp's ridleys and loggerhead sea turtles, this includes crabs. The crabs we offer are species that are found right here in the Boston Harbor, including the rock crab and the green crab.



We have to make sure the turtles are stable enough and their gastrointestinal tract (GI) is clear. When cold-stunned turtles first arrive, their GI tends to be full of food parts (including crab claws) that are not moving through the digestive system in their initial debilitated state. We monitor the GI by radiographs and observation of bowel movements. We also look at the fecal samples under the microscope to look for parasites like we found in Acadia.

The picture on the left is Bandelier's initial radiograph. Notice the condensed areas in the middle of the x-ray. That is digestive material in his intestines. The picture on the right is Bandelier's radiograph two weeks later. You can see that material is moving through his digestive tract which is a good sign.

Once everything is working properly and there is a normal parasite load, we will start to offer crabs to the turtle. It is not unusual for some turtles to ignore the crabs in the beginning since they prefer their restaurant quality herring and squid, but after some time they figure out how to be a turtle again and start the process of preparing for release.

Casper, a Kemp's ridley sea turtle from the 2008 season, eats his first crab.

Acadia still needs some time for us to monitor her parasite load and we will continue to monitor her digestive system through radiographs. We won't be surprised if she's eating crabs very soon!

~Kerry and Jill

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The tiny world of marine animal diagnostics

Part of the rehabilitation process on our animals is collecting blood and fecal samples. Through various diagnostics we can determine many issues that an animal may have.


Acadia the rescued loggerhead sea turtle


Above Jen gets ready to draw blood from Acadia. Clockwise left of Jen are Charlie's arm, Courtney, Glennon and Kendra.

For Acadia our loggerhead sea turtle we were concerned about her anemia and by looking at a blood smear we were able to see that she was producing new red blood cells that will help with the anemic issue. The cool thing about reptile red blood cells is that they contain a nucleus unlike mammals that lose their nucleus in the blood marrow during erythropoiesis. Other blood smears may show lots of white blood cells (WBC) which may indicate an infection our Kemp's ridley Crater lake had an extremely high WBC count.


The photo on the left shows the loggerheads bood smear. The yellow arrow is pointing to an immature red blood cell. Note the darker color and condensed look of the cell in comparison to the other red blood cells. The picture on the right is mammalian red blood cells taken from histologyonline.com.

We also examine fecal samples under the microscope as well to check for possible parasitic infestations. Jen another biologist with the rescue group collected a sample from Acadia and went and looked at it under the microscope in the Aquarium Medical Center with Katie the AMC veterinary technician. They were able to find some cool things.


Above left is a copepod (more about copepods from the Right Whale Team here and here). Most likely this was swimming in the water. One problem with aquatic animals is obtaining a "clean" fecal sample as unless it is a formed piece or the animal is out of the water you may get other critters as well. The above right is a ciliate again possibly from the water but may have been in the feces. They also saw some nematodes but those were too fast to be captured by the microscopes camera. Nematodes are a typical gastrointestinal (GI) parasite in adult sea turtles. Because of their presence Acadia got a deworming oral treatment the following day.

Acadia continues to do very well!

-Adam


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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

How many biologists does it take to treat a loggerhead?

At least twice a week we bring out Acadia, the loggerhead sea turtle, for treatments. She has some superficial skin lesions on her leading edge of the front flippers. This is often seen in cold-stunned sea turtles after they are returned to their proper temperature.


Acadia as she is removed from her rehabilitation tank for treatment.

Some of the skin sloughed off and under microscopic examination we noticed some bacterial rods, this finding prompting the veterinarians to start her on an antibiotic. Her blood work also still shows some minor anemia so we also have been giving her a shot of iron as well.


You can see the sloughing on the leading edge of the front flipper (L). Bacterial rods under microscopy(R).

Unlike the smaller sea turtles we normally admit to our sea turtle clinic, ones that are easily handled by one person, Acadia requires a team. I am told eight is the optimal number but we can get by with five in a pinch. Below are some pictures of us removing her from her tank for a treatment.



In the pool you can see me instructing one of our great volunteers Sarah on how we will coral Acadia and get her out of the pool, while Charlie is waiting on the deck with the "dry" team to receive the turtle (left). Kerry gives Acadia one of her shots (right).

She usually soaks us with her front flippers!

Putting her back in is not as hard as getting her out!



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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

What's in a name - the rescued turtle debate

So there is a little bit of a debate about our new turtle's name.


Sarah one of our fabulous volunteers with Bandalier.

But first....

Joe Tatulli came to visit his turtle yesterday along with his niece and nephew. You may remember Joe from some of his photos and an interview on a Rhode Island news program. Joe was the original caller for Acadia our loggerhead sea turtle. They were able to say hello to Acadia and meet our new ridley.


Joe with Bethany and Daniel

Joe also knew the way to endear himself to our crew. Not only reporting the stranded turtle but bringing delicious sandwiches from the Sandwich Hut in Providence. Thanks Joe!


Photo from Joe of rescuers taking Acadia back to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

Okay, so back to the naming thing. We chose National Parks for our naming convention this year. With the second turtle most people thought we would name the turtle Bryce imagine their surprise when we called it Bandalier. There was some arguments that it was not a national park but a state park and therefore should be named Bryce.

However, through further research we found that it is a National Monument which, is run by the National Parks Service. Though this may be a technicality, I like the name, so Bandalier it is! Also from what I am told Bryce National park is beautiful and has lots of oranges and reds which describes a loggerhead to a tee, and our new turtle is a Kemp's ridley.

We also just received another new turtle. The names being batted around are crater or canyon. The choices may give you a hint to what else is wrong with this turtle besides cold-stun. Check back soon for an update ...

-Adam

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Saturday, October 17, 2009

How do you like your calamari? Acadia lets us know her preference!

Acadia, the loggerhead sea turtle, is adjusting well to her tank. We took her out on Thursday to run blood work, do an exam, and give more fluids. Getting her out of the pool is no easy task!


Kate Sardi, Rescue Department senior biologist, and Eric Payne, Animal Health Department biologist, put on dry suits and courageously went into the tank to help Acadia out.


While Acadia was out of her tank and after we received results from taking her blood, we performed an exam and gave her more fluids.

Then she was placed back in her tank (a much easier process than getting her out). Our next task was to start feeding. Usually turtles are slow to start eating so it was no surprise that she turned her back on the herring I offered later that afternoon.

By Friday afternoon, Acadia decided squid was her preference and began to eat. No need to fry or grill calamari for her, she takes it raw! Today she even began to eat whole herring. This is an excellent sign!



We will check her bloodwork again early next week and continue to monitor her progress. Check back for updates!

~Kerry


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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Acadia makes a big splash!

Acadia made a big splash yesterday as she headed on into the Sea Turtle Recovery Room's smaller tank. We had multiple news agencies here to share the experience.



But before going into the tank we wanted to make sure we were able to get some tagging done. While Acadia was still a bit lethargic and not feeling 100% we determined that it would be the best time to PIT and Inconel tag this turtle. These procedures are difficult with the small turtles with animal of this size we would have gotten our butts kicked if she was in a fighting mood!

Connie and Kate prepping Acadia for a PIT tag.

We also gave more fluids to help with the minor electrolyte imbalance and gave an injection of iron to help with her slight anemia. Then we rolled her out of the Aquarium Medical Center over to the tank she will be calling home for a while.

Acadia all wrapped up in a turtle stretcher.

With cameras rolling and lights flashing she was placed into the pool and gave a good splash with her right front flipper.


Acadia being placed into the smaller pool in the Sea Turtle Recovery Room.

After a couple of hours of swimming she gave us a great present of a large bowel movement! This is wonderful news because it means that her intestinal tract is highly unlikely to have an impaction and under microscopic observation there were no signs of parasites.


Here's a movie that shows photos of her rescue and video of us transferring her into the recovery room:



-Adam


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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Update on our new patient, Acadia

We received photos today from Joseph Tatulli the person who first saw the loggerhead sea turtle that was rescued this weekend and reported it. Here is a picture of the turtle in Drummers Pond.


(Photo: Joseph Tatulli)

Also our new loggerhead was given a name today. We have decided on Acadia. Most seasons we choose a theme for naming rescued turtles, this year we have decided on National Parks. Here's a list of the parks.


Acadia National Park is located in Maine.

But enough about the naming. What's going on with our gal...


Intestines in the radiograph.

Yesterday we took radiographs and found that she has a fairly full gastrointestinal tract. She is also missing part of her rear left flipper, most likely due to some predation as a smaller turtle. We removed the majority of barnacles and cleaned her up her shell. Some folks visiting the aquarium got a good show of her receiving a fresh water bath in a small pool as we were removing the algae off of her carapace.


Removing the barnacles

Her blood work shows that she is still slightly anemic because of this we may hold her a little longer than what we had originally planned. Some of the keratin on the Carapace is also starting to slough off which, is not too surprising because of the barnacles and algae cover. We also want to make sure she is able to move the contents out of her intestinal tract and that there isn't a blockage.


Before After

We are planning on putting her into one of our sea turtle tanks in the sea turtle recovery room at some point today. We will monitor how she is swimming and hope the activity will help stimulate GI motility.

-Adam


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Monday, October 12, 2009

The new turtle season starts BIG!

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we received a BIG surprise from the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. Our First cold-stunned sea turtle of the season has arrived. Typically the first turtles are small ridleys and green sea turtles, so this one was a real shocker.

She is an sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle. She was reported to the Wellfleet Audubon Sanctuary late Sunday evening as a juvenile leatherback that was swimming in a marsh. It was already getting dark and we hoped that the turtle would swim back out on its own. When they found it Monday morning it turned out to be this 175-lb. loggerhead.

The big girl in the back of an Audubon pickup, she took up almost half of it.

When the rescue department arrived in Wellfleet the turtle had a temperature of 54.8F because the bay temperature did not drop below 60F this indicates that the turtle had been exposed to the air temperature possibly over the past couple of nights.


Here James from the Audubon Society helps me load the turtle into a kennel and we are able to get a great plastron (lower shell) shot!

The carapace (top shell) was covered with algae and barnacles. She had low respiratory and heart rates. Her blood work showed some minor abnormalities and she was given subcutaneous fluids to help balance them.


Photo of the carapace and the algal and barnacle cover. A close up of the barnacles, yes they are still alive!

We are hoping this animal will have a short stay, but we will know more after X-rays are done and a complete blood work is returned.

-Adam

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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Three more turtles head back to the ocean.

Three loggerhead sea turtles have recently been released from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research Preservation on Long Island, NY. These turtles started their rehabilitation here at the New England Aquarium back in November and December. Junior was released on July 18th, Herb was released on July 25th and Jupiter the smallest loggerhead of the Cape Cod 2008 cold-stun season was released on July 28th.

All three turtles were fitted with satellite tags and can be tracked.

Here is the track for Junior (above) which Riverhead renamed Atlas.


Here is the track for Herb (above).



Here is the track for Jupiter (above).

I have heard rumors that Santa, the last of the loggerheads which was sent to Riverhead, will be released very soon. Thank you to Riverhead for pictures of the released turtles!

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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Sea Turtle Networking in South Carolina

Next stop on our trip took us to the South Carolina Aquarium. At the Aquarium, we were scheduled to meet Kelly Thorvalson, the Sea Turtle Rescue Program Coordinator and a Senior Biologist at the Aquarium. I met Kelly many years ago at a sea turtle workshop and we've stayed in touch ever since. Kelly's knowledge of sea turtle biology and rehabilitation is highly regarded and her passion for sea turtles is contagious. The photo on the right shows part of the Sea Turtle Rescue Center at the South Carolina Aquarium. Kate and I were fortunate to get the grand tour from Kelly.





In this photo Kelly (on the far left) and Kate flank an adult loggerhead sea turtle. This turtle weighs over 365 pounds and is almost ready for release. Unfortunately this photo does not capture the enormous size of this turtle so you'll have to take my word for it. The head of this animal was the size of a watermelon!






While all animal hospitals are kept clean and tidy, Kelly keeps one of the most organized hospitals I've had the pleasure of visiting. Tools of our trade are numerous and include scrub brushes, pool vacuums, suction hoses, pipes, nets and various other cleaning supplies. Kelly has organized her tools and equipment like no other. Check out the wall rack she made to keep these supplies organized and neat! We'll be building one of those upon my return...



Kelly has all sorts of turtle enrichment in her tanks. This one pictured below was by far my favorite. In the wild we most often find sea turtles sleeping under ledges. If their whole bodies don't fit, they will slide their heads under something and fall asleep.



We also see this behavior with the sea turtles in our Giant Ocean Tank. It never occurred to me to try a large pipe cuff like this one. You'll be seeing several of these in our turtle tanks soon!

This was a great visit and we came away with a lot of creative ideas, which we plan to implement in our sea turtle clinic. Kelly's enthusiasm and passion for sea turtles was refreshing. I love being around people who truly love their work! Kelly has a great website detailing her sea turtle rehabilitation work.

Next stop on our trip will be at Zoo Atlanta. Giant panda's, gorilla's and elephants oh my!

- Connie

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

And away they go...


Transport boxes with turtles waiting to be packed into the van to head south.

As mentioned in an earlier blog by our Director Connie Merigo, she and fellow Senior Biologist Kate Sardi packed up a van with Bruce the loggerhead sea turtle and Route the Kemp's ridley sea turtle left the New England Aquarium at 7 pm on April 28. They were joined by six other turtles from the 2008-2009 cold-stun season. One green sea turtle and four Kemp's ridley sea turtles were brought down from the Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center at the University of New England in Biddeford Maine. One loggerhead named Godzilla and two Kemp's ridley sea turtles from our 2007-2008 season are also making the journey joining us from the Woods Hole Science Aquarium.

Dory a Kemp's ridley sea turtle from Woods Hole was from our 2007-2008 cold-stun season.

By 4 pm today all the turtles except for Route should be back in the Atlantic Ocean just in time for a fresh seafood dinner!

Route in the transport box.

Route will be continuing rehab at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center before joining the rest of the animals that were released probably some time this summer.

-Adam

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Friday, April 24, 2009

Route and Bruce Go South!


Hi all,

Good news in the Rescue Department, Route and Bruce will be heading south to Georgia on Tuesday April 28! In case you haven't been following our blog, Route (pictured left) is an endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle and Bruce (pictured below) is a loggerhead sea turtle. Both stranded this past fall and have been undergoing treatment in the Aquarium's Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Clinic.

Senior biologist Kate Sardi and I will be driving Route and Bruce along with 8 other turtles, currently at the Woods Hole Science Aquarium and the University of New England, to Jekyll Island, Georgia. Route will be continuing his rehabilitation at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, the others will all be released after our arrival. I'll blog again with some release photos from Georgia so stay tuned for more on our big adventure ...





- Connie

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Our new turtle hospital ward



We are happy to report the opening of our new Sea Turtle Recovery Room. The recovery room features a 25-foot-long pool and a 15-foot-long pool. We have recently moved three of our rehabilitating turtles to the new tanks (Bruce the loggerhead, and Bubba and Casper the Kemp's ridleys). In these photos you can see Bruce and Bubba enjoying their spacious new home.




The recovery room is on display in the West Wing of the Aquarium, so stop by to visit our turtles!

- Dr. Innis

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Update: turtle on a ventilator

This is an update for the post from December 17. The loggerhead turtle that was on a ventilator has turned the corner and is doing pretty well. We have named him Bruce. The photos show him happily swimming under water. He has just recently become strong enough to stay in the pool 24 hours per day. He is quite hungry and is eating well. We are treating him with antibiotics and several other drugs to protect his digestive system. For the first few days after he arrived here he was passing foul-smelling, decomposing tissue from his digestive system. We think the medications are working well and we are hoping that his digestive system will be able to heal.

We have recently sent several of our loggerhead turtles (including the featured blog turtles Santa and Jupiter) to the Riverhead Foundation, Long Island, New York for further rehabilitation. More updates will follow sooon.

- Dr. Innis

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Santa the turtle

After getting two big snow storms last weekend, followed by very cold temperatures, we thought that we probably would not be getting any additional stranded turtles for 2008. Usually, once the snow, ice, and freezing temperatures arrive any turtles that are left in Cape Cod Bay die from severe hypothermia. Imagine our surprise when we heard that a live loggerhead turtle had been found stranded on Cape Cod on Sunday December 21!

The turtle was brought to the New England Aquarium on December 22, and is receiving medical care. He is not yet warm enough or strong enough to be swimming very much, but he should be getting stronger over the next few days. The picture shows him resting in a nice padded bed of blankets and towels. Our staff named him Santa. The loggerhead turtles that tend to strand in New England are juveniles that are much larger than the juvenile Kemp's ridley turtles that also strand on Cape Cod. We think that the larger body size of the loggerheads allows them to tolerate colder temperatures than the smaller Kemp's ridley turtles. As a result, we usually see the largest loggerheads near the end of the stranding season, and the smallest ridleys at the beginning of the stranding season.

Happy Holidays,
Dr. Innis

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Friday, December 19, 2008

Jupiter is eating

This is Jupiter, a juvenile loggerhead turtle that arrived to our hospital on December 5th. Jupiter weighs about 25 pounds. It's hard for us to tell whether juvenile turtles are male or female. Both sexes look the same when they are young. As males get older they develop much larger tails than females. If we want to know the gender of young turtles we have to look inside their body (under anesthesia!) with an endoscope to see whether they have testes or ovaries.

Jupiter was very cold when he arrived here, so he was gradually warmed, and was allowed to swim for short periods of time. This week Jupiter has been able to swim 24 hrs per day, and he just started eating a few days ago. His favorite foods are herring and squid.

- Dr. Innis

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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Turtle on a ventilator

This loggerhead turtle arrived today with a body temperature of 48 degrees. He was found on a beach in Truro, MA. He was near death, with a heart rate of only three beats every two minutes. He was not breathing. This photo shows him attached to a ventilator to help him breathe. We also gave him intravenous drugs to stimulate his heart and breathing. After several hours on the ventilator he perked up a little, and we were able to remove his breathing tube. His heart rate is now 5 beats per minute. He does not yet have a name, but his ID number is MH08-198-Cc. I will keep you informed of his status over the next few days.

- Dr. Innis

[Note: See this post for an update on this turtle. He has been named Bruce.]

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Tuesday, December 9, 2008

One of our larger turtle patients


This is Godzilla the loggerhead sea turtle. He is one of our larger turtle patients for 2009. 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 hoepfully be released from Cape Cod in the summer of 2009.

- Dr. Innis

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