A tale of two turtles

[Flaptail]

This morning, with the wind blowing 25 plus from the northeast, friend LaFleur called and he came and picked me up at 6:30 and off we went to take a drive at low tide along Sandy Neck Beach. We were the first truck out as the sand track was a blank page and we cut the trail out front. Were were about halfway down to Beach Point when we spotted a black fish tote on shore just above the breakers. I jumped out and the tote was in perfect shape, score one for us.

The wind was hauling out of the noth'east hard and Eric says to me, "this is the kind of weather where we are liable to find some marine mammal stranded or dead on the beach. Just after he said that we spotted a sea turtle on it's back just above the high water mark. We stopped and I picked it up and it raised it's head weakly and tried to move it's flippers. It was olive green and about 20 inches long by 16 wide. We put it in the tote and called the Cape Cod Stranding Network, the girl told us they don't do turtles just whales, dolphins and seals and if we ever run across any to leave them and mark the place with a stick ( I said to Eric afterward that yeah sure I will mark a seal with a stick, just look for the stick with red all over it) anyway, she said she would call the Boston Aquarium and get back to us, by now we are back in the Sandy Neck main parking lot, A woman calls us to tell us that we had two options, one drive it halfway to Boaton and they would meet us or drive to Wellfleet to the Audobon Society's place there, which we opted for, and they would transport it and any other turtles found today to Boston Aquarium.

When we got there the gentleman mat us and we brought the turtle in for a quick observation and ID. It was a green sea turtle, rare for these parts and found mostly in warm waters from the Gulf coast to Georgia and probably rode the gulfstream up here and was stunned by the cold. It was labeled ST-29, the 29th one found this year ( Kemp's Ridley endangered, greens rare and leatherbacks which are huge) they had a doa Kemp's Ridley which is smaller than the greens brought in from Eastham this morning. The second turtle of the tale was called in while we were there and it was found at Sandy Neck also, if we had gone down the beach a little more we would have found him too. It was reported to still be alive as was ours. Pretty cool, never saw one up close on the Cape. The woman called from Boston and said ST 29 was on IV and we could come up anytime to see it and the facility they have for rehabilitate them. If all goes well ST-29 will be released next May.

[numbskull]

Wait until you get the bill!

[Squid kids Dad]

Good work,Flap..Nice to see someone to put in an effort

[Tagger]

and i just stayed in my cellar all day .. great story ..and follow up ..

[Swimmer]

That was nice of you the your friend to drive to Wellfleet.

[fcap60]

Flap:

You and your buddy did the right thin. Kudos for your efforts. We should all learn from your experience.

Nice work

[Karl F]

ya turtle made page one:
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/aslow25.htm
they can close the beach for those dudes too...
did ya show them your beach sticker up in weelfoot at the sanctuary?

[DZ]

Way to go Steve! You'll be rewarded by mother nature for that act of kindness.

Two weeks ago my casting partner Al and I found two painted turtles on the dirt roads of block. A wonderful day in mid November, with temps pushing 70, butterflies and spring peepers all about. Turtles were all over the place. Anyway, we moved them to adjacent ponds so no one would drive over them. Legend on Block is if you rescue a turtle you'll be rewarded. All I can say is my partner Al left the island a day early before his reward..... but the legend came true for me.

DZ

[MakoMike]

Just so you know, there is a telephone number in RI you can call to report similar incidents. I keep it in my cell phone, which unfortunately right now is in my truck, but an internet search should turn up the number for you RI guys.

[fishpoopoo]

damn.

i just missed some good soup.

[afterhours]

just added to your karma account. way to go .

[PaulS]

[Redsoxticket]

Did you find Dum-Dum ?

[Skitterpop]

Nice work Flaptail!

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They also make decent soup and then an ashtray or change/keys/etc. receptacle for your bureau or kitchen download station

[Nebe]

cool story- i hate to break it to you but the place you brought it to is a cover for a asian turtle soup factory