<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%>

Victoria's Turtle Story Some time ago I received a call from a Belgian man and his wife who lived part of the year on St. Kitts, our sister island in the eastern Caribbean Sea. They had found a hatchling hawksbill turtle that had wandered the wrong way after hatching and was severely dehydrated. Disoriented by beachfront lighting, the young turtle had crawled inland, away from the sea. They rescued the little turtle and for four months they took care of it, and it grew and thrived. When they needed to return to Belgium, they asked if I would keep the turtle for them. I explained that if I took it, I would not be giving it back. Sea turtles are endangered and possessing a sea turtle is illegal in St. Kitts and Nevis for seven months of the year. I have special permission from the Nevis Department of Fisheries to keep a turtle for educational purposes, or if it is injured. So that is when Victor/Victoria came to stay with me. Because we had already raised and released another hatchling just a few months before, we had a 15’ x 4’ turtle tank. We put Victoria into the tank, where she lived for the next year. The tank had rocks covered with sponge and other invertebrates so she could forage for her natural food. We also kept lobsters, crabs and fish in the tank that she would capture and eat. We supplemented her diet with fish flakes, and later turtle chow (pelleted food) and cut up pieces of fish. When she was 18 months old she was about 22cm long, the size hawksbills are when they return to nearshore environments to live. My partner Andre and his brother Mark, who owns Caribbean Canvas, developed a comfortable turtle harness that we attached to a retractable dog leash. The harness was soft neoprene where it touched Victoria's delicate skin and nylon strapping where it went over her shell. It was secured with Velcro, and the leash attached via a stainless steel hook on the strapping just behind her front flippers in the middle of her carapace (the top part of her shell). It was time for Victoria to learn about the ocean and learn how to fend for herself before her eventual release. The first time Victoria dipped flipper into the ocean, she freaked out. She sat at the surface hyperventilating for several minutes. It was obvious she was in severe distress. I just floated next to her and eventually she calmed down. She dove down to the bottom and sat on the sand and just looked around for a few more minutes. Then suddenly she started to swim. She was definitely on a mission and knew exactly where she wanted to go. I followed her – letting the leash out so as not to restrict her movements. Victoria swam directly to the outflow pipe where water from her tank flowed back into the Car ibbean. And she just sat there. At last she had found something familiar. She did not move from that spot and eventually I lifted her out of the water and took her back to her tank. She was obviously relieved to be back in familiar surroundings. Her body relaxed noticeably. Shortly thereafter she poked her head under the rocks and stayed underwater resting for a long time. The rest of the day she spent in and out of her rock home. I decided not to traumatize Victoria again anytime soon. So it was about a week later when I took her on her harness back into the sea. She was much more relaxed this time. Ah yes, she had been here before. After a short while she began to swim. She explored the sand stopping every so often to investigate some seaweed or look at a fish passing by. After a while she turned toward shore and swam to the beach. It was clearly time to go back home. The next several times in the sea were very much the same. Each time she explored a little more. She sampled different seaweeds and sponges. Tiny jacks swam with her. Occasionally she would swim along with the school of mullet that lived in the bay. After a month or two of regular trips in the bay, Victoria began to head out to deeper water more frequently. We would take long swims along the shore and she stretched and developed her muscles and investigated rocks and nooks and crannies. When Victoria was 24 months old she was very comfortable in the sea. Each time we went swimming we would go further and further down the coast. The time had arrived for Victoria to be set free. She had done her time as teaching turtle. Now it was time to be free turtle. One Wednesday my young students and I loaded Victoria into the boat and set off to a healthy patch reef just a short ways down the coast. We put Victoria’s harness on her and off we went. She was very comfortable there. She swam with us and explored the nooks and crannies scraping food off the undersides of rocks. She was thoroughly absorbed in exploring this new place. A half-hour later we took the harness off. She never even noticed. She continued to hang out with us and explore. Shortly thereafter we all got back in the boat and said our good-byes. Victoria was free. As any mother does, I worried about Victoria. I wish I had been able to check the reef the next day but I set off for a conference in Miami. I asked other marine biologists if they knew of any other studies like this raise, acclimate and release project I was doing. No one could think of any that had been done before. There were head start programs where turtles were raised and then released into the sea with out any preparation or acclimatization. One of the biologists noted that there was a distinct difference between the behavior of head start turtles being released and same aged turtles that had been in captivity for awhile when they were released. The ones that were just being returned to the sea sped off on their way while the head start turtles just sat there and looked confused. As one person put it, they were basically just shark bait. Turtles raised in captivity basically do not have muscles developed for escape in the open ocean. Most of them have never swum in a very large area. They do not know what to eat, how to protect themselves or where to go. I knew that I had done everything I could to teach Victoria how to find and catch food. She had decimated the lobster and crab populations in her tank often enough. And she was darned good at catching fish in her aquarium. The many weeks of swimming I believe helped her develop her muscles. Sometimes she would poke along exploring and other times she would take off on short sprints seemingly testing her muscles. Each week she seemed to get stronger and her body language showed her growing confidence. When I returned from the conference where I constantly worried about Victoria’s well-being, I immediately set off for the reef where she had been released. I didn’t see her. I wasn’t even sure I could identify her because I hadn’t known at the time how to mark her. Several more times I looked for her – but she was not where I was. Then a couple of weeks later, a friend of mine told me about some people who lived in a house just a few yards form where Victoria was released. The children there were delighted because often a young sea turtle would come in and approach them as if wanting to play. The turtle never did actually come close enough to touch but it was clearly interested in the children and interacted with them. I took this is a sign that Victoria had survived and was still living in the area near her release. I was a little concerned because I did not want Victoria to think of people as her friends and allow them to get very close to her. But I have noticed and heard from other divers that many of the young sea turtles along the coast here allow people to come relatively close. So I do not think that Victoria’s behavior was all that detrimental to her survival. I now have three hatchlings that were rescued from the bottom of a nest after the others had all made their way to the sea. I hope to raise them as I did Victoria, acclimate them in a similar way and release them to live free in their natural habitat. While they are growing they will be turtle ambassadors. Many people who come to the aquarium to see them will have a chance to touch a sea turtle for the first time and to watch one close up. That is what they can give to me. What I can give them is a chance to go home equipped with the skills and physiology they need to survive wild. We have another turtle now. Crush. You can learn about him here.

Back to Top | Home | About Us | Photos | SeaCamp | Day Trips | Terramar | Contact | Store | Teachers ©2002-2007 Under The Sea - Nevis, All Rights Reserved Site by TrailsWeb