Rare turtle returned to sea
Published: September 12, 2006
A rare sea turtle named Geddy was released back into the ocean Friday by a team from the Baltimore Na-tional Aquarium’s Marine Ani-mal Rescue Program.
“It’s a great experience to be able to release an animal,” Jen Dittmar, the program’s stranding coordinator, said after the release.
Geddy, a 35-pound Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, was found injured in late June and has spent the last few months in rehab.
At about 9 a.m. Friday, Ditt-mar and others piled into three boats and traveled about a mile offshore to release Geddy, who is expected to head south. Dittmar helped to gently place Geddy back into the water, which she said was important to her.
“Over half of marine animals in rehab are because of human-related doings, so it’s important to give back,” she said.
The release comes after months of hard work by the program crew, and of course, Geddy.
“It’s always good to see them go,” Dittmar said, adding that it is fun to get to know animals during rehabilitation and see their personalities.
Geddy landed in rehab after a commercial fisherman caught him in a pound net with a recreational fish hook in his esophagus. The fisherman contacted the Department of Natural Resources, which then brought Geddy to MARP in Baltimore.
Molly Foyle, aquarium spokeswoman, said that finding individual turtles of Geddy’s kind in the bay is unusual. Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are typically found off the waters of Mexico in the Gulf Coast. While they do migrate north to warm waters, it’s still unusual to find a single turtle.
The species is also rare, with only about 6,000 Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in the world. It is one of the smallest species; Geddy measures 20 inches wide by 20 inches long.
After Geddy’s rescue, the top priority was to get it healthy and back to its natural environment.
“The first concern was to get the hook out of his throat because he couldn’t eat and that goes a long way to being heal-thy,” Foyle said.
After the initial surgery, veterinarians could not remove the hook. They then worked with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to borrow a tool to help extricate the hook. After it was removed, Geddy was rehabilitated in the Balti-more Aquarium’s hospital pool, where he gained 6.5 pounds eating squid, herring, crab and shellfish.
Geddy also gained a satellite tag. The tag will be on his back and will transmit information about Geddy’s whereabouts.
“We really love to do it because it helps gauge people’s interest,” Foyle said, adding that scientists also find it helpful to track an animal’s progress.
The information about Geddy’s travels will be available to the public at www.aqua.org. The tag is not standard and was provided by the Herbert Bearman Founda-tion Inc., which also named Geddy.
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