|
Earlier this summer, volunteers with the Anna Marie Island Turtle Watch were conducting a track count survey along Bradenton Beach in southwest Florida, when their routine patrol turned into a turtle emergency. The volunteers spotted a large loggerhead at the base of a sea wall in obvious trouble (photo above). The turtle was covered with blood and struggling to free herself. She had a foot-long crack in her plastron, the shell that protects her underside.
The turtle, nicknamed Sadie by her rescuers, had come ashore to lay her eggs on a stretch of beach where many beachfront homeowners had built sea walls to battle the natural force of erosion. Just north of where she came ashore was a three-feet-high sea wall. Below the wall the sand had washed away exposing an old rock jetty. Apparently, while in search of a nesting site, Sadie climbed an unarmored section of dune, then turned slightly north to find herself on top of the sea wall. For whatever reason, she turned back toward the sea and tumbled onto the rocks below.
Sadie was taken to Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory, where scientists determined she was still full of germinated eggs. Concerned that Sadie would be unable to lay her eggs, Mote scientists injected her with oxytocin, a hormone used to induce labor in humans. This was reportedly the first ever attempt to induce labor in a sea turtle. The procedure appears to have been successful, and Sadie’s eggs were relocated to an artificial nest on a safe part of the beach. Sadie’s injuries are now being treated and she is recovering.
CCC congratulates the Anna Marie Island Turtle Watch volunteers and Mote Marine for their quick and successful response. Unfortunately, while this incident has a happy ending, it underscores the devastating impacts that sea walls and other forms of coastal armoring can have on sea turtle survival.
|
