Stranded Kemp's ridley turtle. Photo by Bill Allen, MassAudubon.

The recent cold snap and last weekend’s nor’easter have resulted in the first turtle stranding of the year.  This animal is currently in rehabilitation at the New England Aquarium.  Click here to read it’s story on the New England Aquarium’s Marine Animal Rescue Team Blog.

The Sea Turtle Stranding Network

MassAudubon staff rescuing a loggerhead turtle.

The National Marine Life Center is a partner in the National Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network.  Within the Northeast Region, there are several other partners, each with slightly different responsibilities and all working collaboratively to help cold-stunned sea turtles.  The Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary provides beach response and triage.  The New England Aquarium provides initial medical evaluation and critical care.  And the National Marine Life Center, along with the NOAA Woods Hole Science Aquarium, the University of New England’s Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center at Biddeford, Maine, and the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation in New York, provide on-going rehabilitative care.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversee the stranding network.

Even with all these organizations working in partnership to help, in years with a lot of strandings there isn’t enough rehabilitation space.  When this happens, turtles are sent to Georgia, Florida, or sometimes farther for care.  That’s why we’re so excited to open the first two pools in the National Marine Life Center’s new marine animal rehabilitation hospital!  Each pool has room for up to 9 juvenile Kemp’s ridley turtles, the most common species and age class to strand on Cape Cod.  Or, each pool could fit up to 3 juvenile loggerhead turtles, the second most common to strand around here.  We’re pleased to reopen our doors to sea turtle patients this season.  And, as we raise additional funds, we will put additional pools on-line so we can help more animals.

What To Do If You Find A Stranded Sea Turtle

In the meantime, with turtle stranding season upon us, it’s a good time to remind people what to do if you find a stranded sea turtle in Massachusetts.

DON’T:
~ Don’t put the turtle back in the water.  It needs medical attention.
~ Don’t remove the turtle from the beach.  Special permits and training are required to work with these endangered animals.

DO:
~ Move the turtle above the high tide line.
~ Cover the turtle with dry seaweed, to help it from getting even colder.
~ Mark the turtle’s location with a stick, buoy, or other piece of beach debris so MassAudubon’s rescue volunteers can find it.
~ CALL MassAudubon’s Rescue Hotline at 508-349-2615.  Leave a message with very specific directions and include your contact number so they can call you back if they have questions.

If you live outside of Massachusetts, please click here to find the name of your state sea turtle stranding network coordinator.

Thanks for caring about stranded sea turtles!

A Kemp's ridley turtle in rehabilitation at NMLC.

Mola mola basking at surface. The dorsal fin tip is often the only part of the fish spotted from the shore. Photo by New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance.

We’ve been getting a number of calls reporting something flopping around in the water, appearing injured, possibly about to strand.  The animals have been reported as entangled sea turtles, sharks, seals, and fish.  Lately, what these fluttering creatures turn out to be is an “Ocean Sunfish.” Ocean sunfish , or Mola, are large, silvery, disc-shaped fish with long dorsal and anal fins, very tiny pectoral fins, an enormous head, and almost no tail.  The “something flopping” frequently reported is the Mola’s tall, pointed dorsal fin waving above the water when the animal is in its normal, vertical swimming position.  Sometimes on a sunny day you can see these fish lying horizontally at the surface, basking in the sun – hence the name “sunfish”.

There are three species of ocean sunfish, all in the Family Molidae.  The round-tailed or common mola (Mola mola) is the species most frequently seen around Cape Cod.  The other two species are the sharp-tailed mola (Masturus lanceolatus) and the slender mola (Ranzania laevis).  All three species are found in temperate and tropical waters world-wide, usually in deeper water.  They prefer water over 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius).

This photo of a Mola and snorkeler shows the scale of these enormous fish. Photo by OceanSunfish.org.

The common mola is very large, reaching on average 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) in length, 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) in height, and 1,000 kg (2,200 pounds) in weight.  They hold the record for the world’s heaviest bony fish with one specimen that was 3.1 meters (10 feet) long and 2,235 kg (4,927 pounds) (Source: Carwardine 1995 via oceansunfish.org).

Sunfish primarily feed on jellyfish.  Their diet also includes salp, squid, crustaceans, small fish, fish larvae, and even eel grass.  They feed at all levels of the water column.  Perhaps they have been sighted nearshore recently because they were following the food….

The New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance (NECWA) tracks local ocean sunfish sightings and also responds to stranded animals.
If you see an ocean sunfish, please complete this NECWA sightings form:
http://nebshark.org/report_a_sunfish_sighting.html
If you find a stranded ocean sunfish, live or dead, please:
call NECWA at 508-566-0009.

For more information on ocean sunfish….
New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance
OceanSunfish.org
Wikipedia

And, just for the kids:
Mola Coloring Sheet, (c) Kristen Carlson, Fathom It Productions, via OceanSunfish.org
Easy Origami Ocean Sunfish, via www.origami-instructions.com

Mola mola. Photo by NOAA.

Harbor seal pup.

Over the past couple of weeks the National Marine Life Center’s staff and interns have been involved with monitoring a number of stranded seals around the Cape.

There are four species of seals that live on Cape Cod: the hooded seal, the harp seal, the harbor seal and the gray seal. Two of these animals are seasonal visitors: the hooded and harp seals, and the other two live here year round: the harbor and gray seals. Our seasonal seals spend part of their lives in arctic waters. For our year round seal residents, it is pupping season. This means that this is the time of year that the females are giving birth to pups. Seal pups are very independent – pups from some species only stay with the mother for 4 days! When you see a seal on the beach a number of things could be happening. Seals are only semi-aquatic, so they spend part of their time in the water and part of their time on land. The animal could be perfectly fine and independent from its mother and just looking for a warm nap in the sun. Frequently, seal mothers leave the pups on the beach for a short amount of time so they can go fishing.

Seal pups are not as experienced or accomplished swimmers as their adult mothers, and don’t have the stamina or speed to keep up with their mothers while they’re hunting. So the mothers will leave their pup on the beach while they eat and come back for them later on. When people spot a seal on the beach, it will draw a crowd. If the mother comes back to retrieve the pup and there’s a number of people on the beach, the female will probably not approach the beach until the people are gone – even one person could be enough of a deterrent to keep her away from her pup. The baby can’t live too long without the mother – a couple days without her milk, and it will starve. If the pup is still with its mother – it’s probably not old enough to hunt for itself yet.

The seal pup found on Scusset Beach.

The first time I was able to go out with our animal care technician, Kate Shaffer, to check out a seal pup was a couple weeks ago. There was a very young harbor seal pup on the beach. This animal was probably not old enough to be independent yet. The organization responsible for marine mammal stranding rescues on the Cape is IFAW – the International Fund for Animal Welfare. When an IFAW volunteer arrives on the scene, the first thing they do is set up a barrier around the animal to keep people back. The goal is 100-150 feet on all sides – but that may not always be realistic to enforce. We give the animal as much space as possible and monitor it for 24-48 hours to keep people away from it and to find out if the animal is responsive to its environment, if it’s behaving normally, and to determine if it looks emaciated or if it’s suffering from any wounds.

The seal pup enjoys a sunny day at the beach.

The best thing for someone to do when he/she sees an animal on the beach is to LEAVE IT ALONE! Unfortunately, some people we encountered that day didn’t understand that – despite our attempt to explain that. Because seals are semi-aquatic, their skin is covered in fur, and doesn’t need to stay wet like a fish or whale. It is perfectly happy warming up on the beach, nice and dry. One woman was so distraught that we weren’t keeping the seal wet that she approached the animal and poured cold water on it. All this woman accomplished in this situation was scaring the seal – and causing it to leave the beach and swim out into the ocean, thus using up some of its valuable energy. We managed to find it again – it had found a quiet spot along the rocks on the jetty.

Harbor seal pup found a quiet spot after its harassment.

From there I hung out with some nice fishermen and watched over the seal for a couple hours – while trying not to look directly at it too much or take too many pictures. I tried not to draw too much attention to it so that it wouldn’t have to deal with the stress of loud people. My plan worked a little too well, and some teenagers jumped into the water from the jetty about 200 feet away. Although they weren’t terribly close to the pup, the splash scared it enough that it started swimming again. Kate and I followed it around the jetty as far as we could before it finally lost us. We hoped that the pup’s mother would be able to find it even though it had traveled a little way from where she left it. Unfortunately, the next morning it was found again on the beach. This is a mixed bag because it’s good news that the seal survived the night, but it’s bad news that the seal was not picked up by its mother.

Brie with the grey seal juvenile.

The next time we had a seal pup call was a couple weeks later, and it was a different species – a grey seal. This seal was probably old enough to be on its own; it had just hauled out onto the rocks along the Canal and was taking a nap. The role of the volunteers (in this case, the NMLC interns) was to answer questions about the seal, and just monitor its behavior to check for any abnormalities.

Grey seal juvenile.

We sat our with the seal for a couple hours – just talking to people and watching the seal wiggle around on the rocks, it was a great day! Eventually, the animal went back into the water on its own and continued on its journey. It was a great opportunity to spend some time with the grey seal and see how it moves on land.

Brittany with the seal. We were strictly business during our shift.

So the moral of the story is to leave seals alone if you see them on the beach. Dumping water on them or putting a blanket over them is actually harassment, and will hurt the animal much more than it could help. Seals don’t need to be wet – in fact if they’re coming up on the beach, that means that they want to dry off. Putting a blanket on a seal just reduces its ability to control its body temperature, and will probably cause it to overheat. Leave the rescue work to the professionals – please call the IFAW stranding hotline (508) 743-9548 if you find a stranded marine mammal.

Please don't harass seals!

Photo credit: Amy Van Atten, NOAA

Great white sharks may not be the only predators local gray seals are facing this summer. Over the last six weeks, five adult gray seals were found shot on Cape Cod beaches from Dennis to Chatham. Biologists from the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Marine Mammal Rescue and Research team discovered the cases in the course of standard stranding response efforts.

Given the large population of gray seals in this area, it is not uncommon to find stranded animals along the shore; however, these cases presented differently. In two instances, trained staff members recognized external wounds on the seals as gun shot wounds. As a result, all seal strandings are being more closely examined for evidence of human interactions, including gunshots.

“Although we cannot discuss the details of the cases, the bottom line is that the perpetrators are breaking the law and animals are suffering and dying as a result,” said Katie Moore, manager of the IFAW team.

While each case is examined on scene for forensic evidence, the most accurate evidence has come from CT scans and subsequent dissection and removal of the fragments. All ballistic evidence is currently being analyzed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) Special Agents. All five seals appear to have died as result of the gunshot wounds.

Gray seals are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. This federal law prohibits the harassment and killing of all marine mammals and violations can result in both civil and criminal penalties. “These animals are suffering greatly. We are taking these crimes very seriously and are strongly encouraging anyone with information to call,” said Special Agent Todd Nickerson of NOAA OLE.

If you see a live or dead stranded marine mammal, please report it to the IFAW stranding hotline at 508-743-9548. If you have any information regarding the above cases, please contact Special Agent Nickerson at 508-990-8752.

Founded in 1969, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) saves animals in crisis around the world. With projects in more than 40 countries, IFAW rescues individual animals, works to prevent cruelty to animals, and advocates for the protection of wildlife and habitats. For more information, visit www.ifaw.org, www.facebook.com/IFAWHQ or twitter.com/action4ifaw.

The seal was a juvenile hooded seal (Cystophora cristata), known as a “blueback” because of the blue-ish gray fur on its back.  It had a yellowish underbelly and it’s face was a darker gray.

Hooded seal pups are born on the ice off eastern Canada in late March.  They have the shortest nursing period of any seal – only four days!  Pups keep their “blueback” coloring for about 14 months, then develop a spotted coat.  Adult males of this species have a black inflatable sac on their nose.  They also can inflate their nasal septum into a reddish “balloon”.  The males exhibit this behavior to attract females and to display hostility to potentially competing males.  They are fascinating animals!  Click here for NOAA’s guide on hooded seals.

This blueback may have been resting after a long swim.  IFAW’s staff advised we leave it overnight and check again in the morning.

So what should you do if you see a seal on the beach?
~ Stay at least 50 yards away.  If the seal reacts to your presence, you’re too close.
~ Ask other people to stay away, and keep dogs at a safe distance.
~ Observe the animal from a distance, note it’s size, weight, markings, body condition, and whether or not there are any wounds.  If you have a camera or camera phone, take a photo.
~ Note your location and any significant landmarks nearby.
~ Call the authorized stranding network organization.  It is illegal – and dangerous – for untrained people to get too close to seals.  On Cape Cod, call the IFAW Marine Mammal Rescue Hotline at 508-743-9548.  Elsewhere, check out this map from NOAA to find the authorized respondent in your area.  If you can’t find the number, call your local animal control or police department; they will have the number of folks who can help.
~ Follow the stranding network personnel’s instructions.

Seals periodically come out of the water to rest on the beach.  This is normal and, in fact, necessary for seals.  Unless an animal is clearly in distress, many stranding networks prefer to leave an animal on the beach for at least an overnight in order to see if the animal will leave on its own.

The National Marine Life Center is getting closer to opening our new hospital.  With the first two tanks nearly ready, we are already raising funds to expand and add more rehabilitation space.  You can help by voting for us to win a $250K grant from the Pepsi Refresh Program.  Click here to vote, and/or text 104765 to Pepsi (73774).  If texting, standard messaging rates apply.

One Health is the intersection with veterinary care and science, environmental degradation, and human health.  One of the many examples involves the study of middle ear infections in seals, which are often severe and involve the bones of the skull.  This infection is associated with coliform bacteria and an increase in the incidence of this disease in seals could signal environmental pollution with these bacteria.  Otitis media is also a common illness in human children; complications and bone infections are rare but potentially devastating.  It may the environmental role or the unique anatomy of seals which includes a flap that prevents water from entering the ear canal and also prevents drainage from infection, but seals are an excellent disease model for a human disease.  By treating and studying these naturally occurring diseases we hope to benefit the seals, the environment, and human health care.

Dr. Williams address the group at PCCS

(c) SeaPics

You are what you eat!

And in the case of green sea turtles, literally.  While green turtle hatchlings eat a mixture of aquatic insects, worms, and plants, adults are exclusively herbivorous and feed on seagrasses and algae.

(c) SeaPics

Natural history

Green sea turtles inhabit tropical regions throughout the world.  Adult females come ashore to nest as many as five times during the nesting season, laying an average of 135 eggs per nest.  Eggs incubate for two months.  Once they hatch, the tiny hatchlings run a gauntlet of land predators before reaching the comparative safety of the ocean.  They spend several years in the open ocean feeding on plants and animals near the surface.  As juveniles, the turtles begin to forage closer to the coastline and gradually move to a vegetarian diet.  As turtles grow to adulthood, they begin mating and laying nests of their own around 20 years of age.  Green sea turtles can live longer than 50 years.

Juvenile green sea turtle released back into the ocean. Photo by Mendy Garron, NOAA.

Stranding and rehabilitation in Massachusetts

While Kemp’s ridleys are the most common sea turtle to strand on Cape Cod, each year we see several green turtles as well.  The animals are juveniles, most less than one foot long and most weighing less than fifteen pounds.  The primary reason for stranding in our area is cold-stunning – or severe hypothermia – caused when the cold-blooded animals become trapped in Cape Cod Bay and can’t swim south for the winter.  Thankfully, volunteers from MassAudubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary patrol the beaches every fall looking for stranded turtles.  The New England Aquarium receives the stranded turtles and performs emergency care.  When they are full, partner organizations such as the National Marine Life Center step in to accept animals and complete the rehabilitation process.  The effects of cold-stunning are complex and long-lasting, and many turtles must remain in care for 6-24 months before being released.

(c) Alejandro Fallabrino, Karumbe Photos

Conservation and how YOU can help!

Green turtles are endangered worldwide.  Threats include entanglement in fishing gear and ingestion of marine debris.  You can help by only consuming seafood that was fished sustainably with “turtle excluder devices” or TEDs.  (TEDs are mandatory in the U.S.)  Participate in beach cleanups and dispose of your own trash responsibly.  And, if you see a sick or injured sea turtle on the beach, report it to an authorized wildlife response agency as quickly as possible.

For more information

~ Click Here for the NOAA Office of Protected Species fact sheet on green sea turtles.
~ Click Here for a NOAA fact sheet geared towards kids.
~ Click Here for the NOAA sea turtle stranding and salvage network.

Green Sea Turtle in the Caribbean, by Don “The Turtle Guy” Lewis

“December 29, 2009

“Friends,

“Our family decided many years ago that we would step decisively away from the commercial aspects of Christmas.  We agreed that we would no longer give each other individual gifts, but instead we would dedicate the cash saved to causes which call to all of us.  This has turned out to be a much more gratifying way to celebrate the spirit of the season.

“This year, in the days leading up to Christmas, we read, in the Cape Cod Times, of the shortfall which is keeping your building project from coming to completion.  We were especially concerned, knowing how many turtles are depending upon you – right now.  These turtles appear on our neighborhood beaches, and we’ve known many of them personally.  We have decided that we want to make a small gift in support of the goal of opening the “turtle ward” as soon as possible.  We wish that we might offer a larger sum – but these are bracing times for humans as well.

“May your efforts proceed with all due speed.  Many thanks for all your efforts on behalf of sentient beings.”

Marine Animal Stranding Training on Martha's Vineyard

Once the National Marine Life Center is open for seal rehabilitation, Martha’s Vineyard is a likely source of cases.