Once again, the Marion Natural History Museum hosted an informative and thought-provoking speaker bringing real-time urgency to all creatures great and small as they fight to survive.
The October 19 event featured Karen Dourdeville, Sea Turtle Research Coordinator for the Massachusetts Audubon of Cape Cod. Armed with taxidermy examples of turtles and many decades of dedicated service to the cause of public awareness, Dourdeville’s presentation was both entertaining and poignant.
There are four main types of sea turtles in and around Cape Cod Bay, and, to a lesser degree Buzzards Bay. They are Kemp’s Ridley, Loggerhead, Green, and Leatherback. All are listed by Mass Audubon as critically endangered, threatened, or endangered.
Mass Audubon conducts field data collection, much of which is enabled by some 200 trained volunteers whose efforts to find stranded turtles has produced hundreds of happy endings over the years. Unhappy endings include collecting victims of boat strikes or cold stunning and necrotizing their bodies. An important data collection process is also to ascertain why the turtle died and washed ashore.
These gentle, air breathing reptiles spend much of their early years following the Gulf Stream (think surfer dude Crush from Finding Nemo). When they are mature enough to reproduce, the Earth’s magnetism is used to triangulate them back to their birthplace.
Recreational boat strikes rank high on the list for killing sea turtles. The reptiles are hard to see and have to rise to the surface to breathe. Turtles also rest on top of the salt water tides and are nearly impossible to visually detect.
Educating the boating public is an urgent matter Dourdeville stated. If boaters know they are sharing the local bays with turtles that can grow to over 1,000 pounds, they may be more cautious.
Then there are those troublesome plastic bags. Dourdeville said that plastic bags floating just below the surface of the sea move and look like jellyfish – a turtle’s favorite food.
Mass Audubon has been engaged in trying to find ways to minimize fishing gear entanglements, especially those used by commercial fishermen. Dourdeville told of horrific drowning deaths when ropes used to secure lobster traps wrap around the air breathing animals.
Dourdeville was hopeful, however. She believes that by educating the public the turtles may be able to fight their way back from the brink of extinction.
To contact Mass Audubon if you find a stranded turtle call hotline number 888-732-8878. To learn more about ongoing research and programs visit massaudubon.org.
By Marilou Newell