See cold-stunned sea turtles up close in recovery

Assisting stranded and ill sea turtles is consuming crews at two coastal aquariums this winter, and the public is welcome to see the patients in recovery.

The N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher has 11 green sea turtles in its care after a mass cold-stunning event earlier this month in the Atlantic, and the S.C. Aquarium in Charleston took in three ill loggerheads last week from a similar freeze in ocean waters along New England.

As cold-blooded creatures that cannot regulate their own body temperatures, when stunned in a freeze, sea turtles often turn lethargic, with lower circulation and heart rates, and are vulnerable to respiratory illness, animal attacks, bacterial and fungal infections, abrasions, and death.

The N.C. Aquarium will give special, 15-minute tours to see its special guest reptiles, 10:30 a.m. and 12:30, 2:30 and 3 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays through Jan. 31, for $5 plus admission. The S.C. Aquarium continues its Sea Turtle Hospital tours year round at noon and 2 p.m. daily, for $10 ages 13 and older or $5 ages 3-12, plus admission.

Julie Johnson, aquarium curator at the Fort Fisher complex, said its special tours will let visitors see not only the turtles, but staff and volunteers care for them with special diets. She said all 11 reptiles are juveniles, maybe 2-3 years old, and about the same size. She said at this age, green sea turtles are omnivorous, but their diet shifts to “almost completely vegetarian” as adults.

At this aquarium – part of a slew of animal sites helping the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission by giving temporary care to several hundred sea turtles that fell ill after prolonged exposure to cold water temperatures – Johnson said its 11 tenants are feasting on a mixture of fish and clams, with some shrimp and greens.

This large of a “cold-stun event” is “significant,” but “not that common,” Johnson said. Daily care for the aquarium’s 11 turtles includes, besides special food preparation, “daily water changes” and other close monitoring.

Unsure of how long they will stay, Johnson said each one will be swimming and eating well, and adjusted to warmer water as the year progresses, before the state commission determines their time for reintroduction back into the wild, in the Gulf Stream, with its warmer temperatures a few dozen miles offshore.

The Fort Fisher aquarium usually has a young hatching sea turtle or two among its displays, which span freshwater and land turtles, and a resident among sharks in the Cape Fear Shoals tank at least two stories tall, Sheldon, a roughly 5-year-old green sea turtle whose gender has yet to be confirmed, Johnson said.

“Everybody loves the sea turtles,” Johnson said, including them among about 3,000 total animals in care across the aquarium.

Treatment goes year round in Charleston

At the S.C. Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital, crews there were treating 11 loggerheads as of last week, said its manager Kelly Thorvalson, who grew up in Georgetown.

“With these kind of numbers stranding,” she said, “our Sea Turtle Hospital expansion slated to break ground in fall 2016 is much needed.”

Plans there include moving the sea turtle care facility to the aquarium’s first floor for more exposure to all aquarium visitors, in a site that enhance exponentially the hospital’s wherewithal to rehabilitate threatened and endangered sea turtles. The new site’s improved medical capacities will include triage units, deeper tanks, and private intensive care.

The sea turtles treated at the hospital since its opening in 2000, have included more than 175 rehabilitated and returned to the ocean, and the most frequent types passing through have been loggerheads – the S.C. state reptile – followed by Kemp’s ridleys, and green sea turtles. Two current patients from Georgetown County are Norris and Reece, rescued from south Litchfield Beach and North Island, respectively.

Turtles also trigger quite the interest among the 430,000 people who visit the S.C. Aquarium every year, based on data from its public relations manager, Kate Dittloff, with about 16,000 of those taking hospital tours.

Ripley’s Aquarium also makes room

Also, an announcement was made Wednesday night that Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach has taken in eight sick green sea turtles for rehabilitation after they were found washed up recently on N.C. beaches amid the cold weather.

In partnership with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources Marine Turtle Program, these eight visitors will stay temporarily at Ripley’s until their return to good health for their reintroduction into warmer ocean waters. See updates on these turtles at www.facebook.com/RipleysAquariumMyrtleBeach.

Also, for years, Ripley’s Aquarium has had its own resident celebrity green sea turtle, Gabby, in the Dangerous Reef tank, seen from a 330-foot-long glass tunnel. The aquarium, at Broadway at the Beach, on 29th Avenue North, is open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays and 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. (Advance tickets at www.ripleysaquarium.com are $22.99 ages 12 and older, $14.99 ages 6-11, and $7.99 ages 2-5, and free ages 1 and younger. More details at 843-916-0888 or 800-734-8888.)

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "See cold-stunned sea turtles up close in recovery."