Turtle guided back to sea -- Leatherback helped from river By MARCIA LANE marc

Photos by Daron Dean

Turtle guided back to sea

Leatherback helped from river

By MARCIA LANE
marcia.lane@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 05/26/09

A group of volunteers who helped a leatherback turtle find her way back into the ocean at Summer Haven on Monday won't soon forget Memorial Day 2009.

"You could look her right in the eye. You could see her eyes tearing up," Mark Zander with the Volusia/Flagler Turtle Patrol said. "It was quite an experience."

A rare one, said Tara Dodson, habitat conservation coordinator for St. Johns County.

"I've never seen a live, healthy leatherback turtle," said Dodson, who missed getting to the site at Matanzas Inlet before the turtle made it back into the water.

For about two hours early Monday morning, half-a-dozen volunteers worked to get the wayward turtle back into the ocean.

Turtle Patrol volunteers first spotted the leatherback's tracks near Summer Haven and asked for assistance. A group under the leadership of Beth Libert, coordinator for the Volusia/Flagler Turtle Patrol also holds the permit for St. Johns County, came to the site.

The turtle, who weighed between 600 and 700 pounds, apparently came ashore, crawled over the dune and kept going, crossing over old A1A, heading into the grasslands and continuing into Matanzas River at Summer Haven.

"We followed her tracks and saw her floundering on the sandbar," Zander said. "She was exhausted."

So how do you get a 600-pound turtle back to the ocean when its mind is made up to go elsewhere?

With a lot of effort.

"Our fear was she would go on in the river and get in the Intracoastal (Waterway) ... A turtle that big, she would have had trouble. That was the importance of getting her back over the dune," Zander said.

Joining Libert and Zander in the effort were Turtle Patrol members Sonja Zander, Marcella and Karl Hague, Joan DeCamp and Pat Kleinsser.

Vacationer Clint Pollitt from the Brooksville area ended up adding his muscle to the effort.

"We had seen it in the inlet earlier ... flopping around. We saw some people there and it seemed like they could use some help. ... We went down," said Pollitt, who is renting a vacation house in the area

He joined the group "pushing and pulling" the turtle toward the direction of the ocean.

"My wife and two younger kids were watching the fun," Pollitt said, adding while he's seen dolphins, manatees and sharks "it's the first time I've seen a turtle that big."

Rescuers used a strap to try and guide her during the half-mile trip.

When the leatherback was in the deepest part of the channel she could use her flippers, otherwise the water was so shallow her flippers were touching the bottom.

"It was quite an experience to try and get that thing going in the right direction. You could hear every gasp of breath every time it came up. We were kind of breathing with her. It almost got to the point where you could feel the rhythm, (you knew) when she was going to take a breath," Mark Zander said

Once they had her back to the dune, the going got easier and the turtle headed back to the ocean, pushed along by two of the men.

Dodson says the leatherback is "pretty rare" in the north part of Florida, although more are seen in the southern part of the state.

The wayward turtle may have been laying a nest when she got headed in the wrong direction.

Area experts say it's been an exceptional year for leatherbacks with higher numbers than normal showing up to nest.

"Actually we've had 10 nests this season. I'm pretty sure that's the highest amount on record. That poor girl got disoriented, but the end result turned out fine," Dodson said.

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Leatherback turtle facts

* Scientific name: Dermochelys coriacea

* Largest of all marine reptiles.

* Only sea turtles without hard shells. Black and white shells lack scales and are covered instead with a rubbery skin, distinguished by seven longitudinal keels or ridges.

* Unlike other species, can regulate body temperature, enabling it to dive deeper and to migrate thousands of miles.

* Length: 60 to 100 inches

* Weight: 710 to 1300 pounds

* Distribution: Nests in tropics, can wander to sub-Arctic waters.

* Diet: Jellyfish

* ESA status: Endangered

Source: St. Johns County Web site

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How to help

Sea turtle strandings are increasing.

If you find a dead or sick sea turtle, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission turtle pager at (800) 241-4653 and enter number 274-4867 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Do not put the turtles back into the water in case they need medical attention.

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