Township supports turtle fence plan

Written by Mary Linehan

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE -- Middle Township Committee members have approved a resolution supporting terrapin barrier fencing along North Wildwood Boulevard.

"This is a dedicated group of people. It seems we should do whatever we can to stop the turtles from crossing and being, well, smashed," said Committeeman Dan Lockwood at a recent committee meeting.

"There is a certain amount of red tape, because it is a state road," said Lockwood. "But, we are hopeful that we will be getting close by March."

Deputy Mayor Nate Doughty commented that the turtle crossing also present a safety hazard to drivers.

"People try to avoid them. It is a potentially dangerous situation," said Doughty.

Mayor Susan DeLanzo was absent from the meeting, so the resolution passed with Doughty and Lockwood's support.

The diamondback terrapin’s nesting season begins in late May and extends through early August. During the nesting season, adult female terrapins search for locations to lay their eggs - usually eight to 12 - and, as sand dunes adjacent to salt marshes have disappeared, rely on the shoulders of roads that link the barrier islands to the mainland. The females usually lay a "clutch" of eggs twice during nesting season.

The Wetlands Institute reported that fencing installed along Stone Harbor Boulevard has reduced turtle terrapin road deaths by nearly 84 percent, compared to its peak. The turtle barriers leading into Stone Harbor had necessary opening for building entrances and exits. Fencing along Avalon Boulevard runs in a continuous line, with no openings, which means no turtles can get through in that roadway.

The Institute's 2010 annual report on the Terrapin Education and Conservation Project recorded 608 female terrapin road kills last year; 799 eggs rescued from terrapins killed on the roads; 309 hatchlings from the rescued eggs; and, ultimately 148 "head-started" terrapins released. The group works with Stockton College to hatch the rescued eggs in a laboratory setting and allow the "hatchlings" to mature for 10 to 11 months before release to the salt marches.

The group recorded 366 terrapins rescued from heavily trafficked roads, like North Wildwood Boulevard, last year.

All of the turtles run over are adult females looking for a nesting location above the high tide line. "…[T]errapins are deliberately trying to find high ground to lay their eggs and are not simply attempting to get from one part of the marsh to another," according to Wetlands Institute materials.

Terrapins have long life spans, thought to exceed 30 to 35 years, and, ordinarily, a female can reproduce annually for two decades. The diamondback terrapin lives in coastal salt marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, from Massachusetts to Texas. Scientists have identified 270 different types of turtles, but diamondbacks are the only ones exclusively adapted to life in brackish water.

According to the resolution, the North Wildwood Terrapin Rescue and Stone Harbor's Wetlands Institute are collaborating with government and volunteer groups to raise money for the fencing. "…[T]hese community based projects should reduce the number of nesting female terrapins killed on North Wildwood Boulevard, make our roads safer for driving, encourage citizen science, strengthen the local community and create awareness about local wildlife conservation issues," stated the resolution.

The committee will forward a copy of the resolution to the New Jersey Department of Transportation, state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, and Assemblymen Matt Milam and Nelson Albano.

Source: Shore News Today

Massachusetts to track wildlife as it weighs wind farms

Mass. to track wildlife as it weighs wind farms

By Associated Press | Wednesday, February 23, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Business & Markets

BOSTON — Massachusetts is looking for help tracking whales, sea turtles and other marine wildlife as it weighs the best location for off-shore wind farms.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs are asking businesses to submit proposals to keep tabs on all sorts of creatures that call New England waters their home.

Regulators are specifically looking to capture a full year of seasonal migratory data on birds, North Atlantic right whales and other large whales, and sea turtles in federal waters off the coast of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard islands.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has begun seeking proposals from developers interested in wind farm leases for a 3,000-square- mile area of federal waters about 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1318899

Terrific Turtles

· Coastal Awareness, school vacation weeks. The following programs are suitable for children ages 5-11 with adult chaperones:

Terrific Turtles

Children will learn about the turtles that visit the coast of Massachusetts and some of the problems that they face, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2-3 p.m.

Meeting location will be in Revere, MA.

Pre-registration is required.

Contact DCR park ranger Matthew Nash at Matthew.Nash@state.ma.us or 781-485-2804, ext. 105.

Volunteers helping save turtles on Cape Cod

(NECN: Greg Wayland, Eastham, Mass.)

The race is on to save turtles on the coast of Cape Cod.

Every year, volunteers come together to rescue and rehabilitate the animals.

It's been a record year for stranded sea turtles in Massachusetts waters -- 140 and counting, and today they added a few more.

Bill Allan: "We're right about high tide now and what happens, the turtles will come in with the tide and the waves."

We stood above the cold December sea in Eastham, Mass., Bill Allan and I. We'd come to look for sea turtles stranded by the high tide.

Then, like hundreds of volunteers in towns facing Cape Cod Bay, we walked the beach, with extra help from Bill's golden retriever Hunter.

He's good at hunting for those stranded turtles. Every year in November and December, hundreds of them slip into the warm Gulf Stream from Mexico, get carried north to feast on crab in warm Cape waters, then become trapped in the Cape's long curving arm.

We looked along the "rack line" -- that margin of seaweed and flotsam where turtles usually turn-up, cold-stunned and inert from the forty-degree waters.

Wind is always a factor in where turtles will turn up.

"When we get westerly winds, we'll cover from Truro to Brewster. When it's northerly winds it's from Orleans to Barnstable or Sandwich.

"Finally we got word that there was a turtle that had come ashore at Breakwater Beach in Brewster.

"It's a little Kemp's-Ridley."

A young Kemp's-Ridley, the most endangered of the species -- seemingly lifeless, cold-stunned, its heartbeat possibly as low as one beat per minute.

Volunteers had staked it out, protected it with grass and seaweed, even written "turtle" next to it in the sand,

then moved on in search of more turtles.

Bill took it to the Audubon Sanctuary in Wellfleet.

Soon, Sanctuary director Bob Prescott arrived with more. volunteers to help clean, measure and weigh them

and box them for the trip to the New England Aquarium's Quincy sanctuary where they slowly raise their

temperature five degrees a day and revive them.

On the beach, Bill told us he's been doing this rescued work for eight years.

Bill: "And a couple of times I've gotten to release the turtle that I found the prior November. That's a big high."

About a hundred forty have been rescued so far this year -- and still counting.

If you wish to help volunteer, call the Wellfeet Audubon Sanctuary at 508-349-2615.

Source: NECN

Three-year-old Plymouth boy rescues endangered sea turtle

By Don Lewis aka the Turtle Guy

Late Monday morning, Karen Whalley of Plymouth and her son Teague walked Sagamore Beach on a beautiful sunny day. The seas were calm and the winds gentle. The tide had receded, allowing Karen and Teague to explore the shoreline. As they approached a rock groin, Teague and his mom found a “beautiful” sea turtle unlike anything they had ever seen on the beach before. Not knowing what to do, they returned to their nearby home and searched the internet to find a Cape Cod sea turtle rescuer to call. Google search produced the hotline number for Turtle Journal (508-274-5108). They also found procedures on the site for saving stranded sea turtles.

After calling the Turtle Journal rescue team, Karen and Teague rushed back to the beach. The tide was rising quickly, and they had to plunge into the water to recover the turtle before it was dragged out to sea and condemned to certain death. As they lifted the turtle to the beach, it began to move its flippers, signaling that it was quite alive.

Karen and Teague covered the sea turtle with dry seaweed to prevent hypothermia while they waited for the Turtle Journal team to arrive.

Turtle Journal's Don Lewis and Sue Wieber Nourse examined this juvenile, 2-year-old Kemp’s ridley. Its right eye had been damaged either by scraping against the rocks as it was driven ashore or by predatory gulls. But this little critter proved a survivor and demonstrated its fight for life by trying to “swim” out of Lewis' arms. Even though it was late in the afternoon, Lewis knew that this animal would not survive the night unless it received immediate medical attention. He called the New England Aquarium marine rescue hotline and explained the situation. While they are swamped with nearly a hundred cold-stunned turtles already, and rarely take new patients this late in the day, they generously agreed to accept this Kemp’s ridley. Lewis and Wieber Nourse raced up Route 3 to the new marine rescue facility in Quincy, and the turtle was admitted to the emergency facility by 4:15.

But none of this would have been possible if it were not for a heroic yound lad, Teague Whalley, and his mom Karen.

Don Lewis is executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Districts; Sue Wieber Nourse is a marine researcher, textbook author and master educator. Known as the Turtle Guy, Don and his spouse and partner, Sue Wieber Nourse, have led research, rescue and conservation activities from the tip of Cape Cod to Mount Hope Bay and around the globe for more than a decade. They own and operate Cape Cod Consultants, an environmental solution company that specializes in wildlife issues and habitat assessments that protect nature while enabling appropriate development. Their nature discoveries are chronicled on Turtle Journal.

Source: CapeCodToday

Turtles strand on Cape beaches in high numbers

By Eric Williams | Tuesday, November 30, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Photo by Merrily Cassidy/Cape Cod Times

Even turtle experts are stunned at the recent pace of cold-stunned turtle season on Cape Cod.

From Thursday through midday Monday, 85 sea turtles in trouble were plucked from area beaches.

"This certainly could be a record stranding year," said Robert Prescott, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. "They’re being found anywhere from Sandy Neck in Barnstable all the way up to Ryder Beach in Truro."

Altogether this season, 107 turtles have been found alive and 26 found dead. Most of the survivors have been sent for treatment to a New England Aquarium rehabilitation facility in Quincy. Kemp’s ridley turtles make up the vast majority of the Cape’s stunned turtle population.

In 1999, 278 turtles were brought to the Audubon sanctuary, the current record.

The sanctuary is seeking donations of towels and cardboard boxes to help transport the chilled reptiles to rehab.

Experts say if you see a cold-stunned turtle, move it above the high-tide line. Cover it with eelgrass or seaweed to reduce the effect of the wind. Mark the spot with beach debris in a way that will allow it to be found again. Call the Mass Audubon's sea turtle hot line at 508-349-2615, ext. 104, and leave the exact location of the turtle. Then, let the turtle professionals do their thing.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1299792

Endangered Sea Turtles Rescued Off Cape Beaches

Sea turtles at center of attention

By Carla Gualdron | Friday, November 26, 2010 |

Photo by Jim Michaud

Twenty-one beleaguered sea turtles were rescued on Cape Cod beaches late Wednesday and Thanksgiving Day after they failed to swim south and succumbed to cold waters.

“They look like they’re dead,” said Tony LaCasse, media relations director of the New England Aquarium. “They’re black, green, covered in fungus. They literally have a single heart beat per minute.”

The turtles were brought to the aquarium’s new Animal Care Center in Quincy, a state-of-the-art facility that was specifically designed to handle a large number of animals over a short period of time in emergencies.

The Kemp-Ridley sea turtles, an endangered species, suffered from hypothermia and other injuries. Staff and volunteers from the Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary at Wellfleet Bay braved the cold to search for the critters. LaCasse said strong northwest winds drove the turtles on shore. Since Oct. 20, the aquarium has treated 24 other sea turtles.

“On Thanksgiving, we are thankful to have this new center,” LaCasse said.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1298940

Strong Winds Drove Kemp-Ridley Turtles Ashore

More coverage here:

Endangered Sea Turtles Rescued Off Cape Beaches - Boston News Story - WCVB Boston