Seven sea turtles being released this Saturday!

Seven sea turtles will be released this Saturday, May 7th at the Isle of Palms County Park at 5pm. County Park parking fees will apply and parking is limited. We highly encourage you to carpool, even if from somewhere on the island or in Mt. Pleasant, and to come out extra early to avoid traffic.
Meet the sea turtles being released (captions follow each comparison photo):

Ripley


The little green sea turtle, Ripley, was the victim of a boat strike. After months of wound treatment and antibiotics, Ripley has recovered and is ready to rejoin the sea turtle population!

St. Catherine

St. Catherine was caught on a SCDNR research vessel and had an unfortunate run-in with a stingray. The stingray barb broke off in the tissue between the shoulder and neck and had to be surgically removed. St. Catherine is all better and ready to go to her ocean home!

Hyde

Hyde is a juvenile Kemp's ridley sea turtle that was part of cold stunning event off the NC coast in December. Over 100 sea turtles stranded as part of this event. Hyde really likes to sleep with his head in the PVC tube!

Guardian

Guardian is also a Kemp's ridley from the 2010 NC cold stunning event and can often be seen spashing around in her tank, quite different than the lethargic turtle she was at admission.

Hilton


Hilton, a loggerhead sea turtle, washed up last summer on Hilton Head debilitated and covered in barnacles. Hilton has made a great recovery and is one spunky turtle!
Palmer

Palmer, the loggerhead from the Isle of Palms, is one of the most serverely emaciated and anemic sea turtles we have ever treated. 25 pounds heavier and robust, this turtle is ready for the wild!

Pirate

Pirate stranded on Myrtle Beach in front of Pirate Land Campground and was found to be suffering from lockjaw. After 8 months of tube feeding and doing physical therapy on the jaws, he could open his mouth just enough to fit in small peices of fish. Over the next year, he made great progress and is now able to feed on large, live blue crabs. After almost 2 years in our care, this animal is finally ready for release!
We are so excited to be sending these animals home after their remarkable recoveries. Thanks to the SC Department of Natural Resources and all involved in the rescue, rehabilitation and release of these animals!
-Kelly

"Pirate" makes great progress feeding on his own

Two months ago, "Pirate" was just beginning to open his mouth a few centimeters and starting to feed on his own after being tube fed for 7 months. In fact, the video blog post on March 15th shows "Pirate" taking 2 minutes to eat just 1 small piece of fish. In the newest video below, "Pirate" is able to consume almost a pound of cut fish in 2 minutes!



Once "Pirate" started showing good progress with eating fish, we decided to try live blue crabs, a natural prey item for loggerheads in the wild and an important form of enrichment for the patients in our hospital. In the next video, you can see that "Pirate" wastes no time going after the crab but it takes several attempts to actually get the whole crab into his mouth. Regardless, the end result is that the crab gets consumed.



Range of motion in "Pirate's" jaw is still only a fraction of what it should be but we are on the road to recovery!

Kelly T

After 7 months, "Pirate" starts to eat on his own!

When "Pirate" was admitted into the Aquarium's Sea Turtle Hospital in August 2009, he was comatose and suffering from lockjaw. Months of treatment have included tube feeding a super-gruel 3 times a week (a blue green algae, vitamin and raw fish smoothie as seen in the photo below), doing physical therapy on the jaw muscles, as well as administering antibiotics and muscle relaxers for the first couple of months.

"Pirate" is now able to open his mouth about 2-3 cm - just enough to fit a small piece of fish. It seems like it takes an eternity to actually get the food down (and at first it did) but the more he eats, the better he gets at it. We are now up to feeding about 5 small pieces of fish, twice daily. Just look at the determination in Pirate's eyes in this video!



We still have a long way to go before this animal will be considered releasable but this improvement is exciting! Keep checking back to Pirate's medical case log to get updates or better yet, come visit Pirate and the other 12 sea turtle patients in person. Many of them will be getting released in the spring. The new albino alligator exhibit opens this weekend so this is the perfect time to plan a trip to the South Carolina Aquarium!

Kelly