Georgia Sea Turtle Center “Turtle Update”
Adopt a Turtle
With your donation of $50 or more, now you can “adopt” one of our sea turtle patients. Current patients and already released patients with satellite transmitters are eligible for adoption.
When adopting a turtle, you will receive an official certificate of adoption, a letter from your sea turtle, a 5 x 7 photo of your sea turtle, bi-weekly updates from the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, and you name will appear as an adoptive parent on the Georgia Sea Turtle Center website. If you chose to adopt a current patient, you also have the opportunity to be a VIP at the release of you adopted turtle!
Volunteering
New volunteers are required to attend an Interest Meeting and 1 General Orientation Meeting before beginning their volunteer experience at the GSTC, to allow for the best possible introduction to the Center and volunteer responsibilities.
Focus Classes will be offered monthly and typically held on 4th Tuesday of every month at 7pm, with a few exceptions, in the classroom. ALL volunteers are welcome! March’s Focus Class will be on Monday, March, 24 at 7pm in the Classroom and will be conducted by Dr. Bill Irwin, Director of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. He will be discussing the migration and navigation of sea turtles.
Join us for Turtle Tales
Turtle Tales, Saturdays at 10:30am, is FREE with general admission! There are so many books about sea turtles, it’s hard to choose! Our Turtle Tales program will introduce you to the many children’s books about sea turtles. This program involves a turtle-inspired book reading and craft for children of all ages. There will be a different book and craft each month. And yes, you can purchase the books in our Gift Shop! Join us in March as we read Seymour Sea Turtle Snaps Up Lunch by Matt Mitter and use Seymour’s favorite food, sponges, to paint your very own sea turtle!
Educating at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center
School group attendance was great, with approximately 200 students visiting the Georgia Sea Turtle Center in February! We took our ‘show on the road’ to Oglethorpe Elementary for an Outreach program for 200 1st and 2nd graders as a part of Georgia History Day! In February, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center Education Team attended numerous educational conferences throughout the state of Georgia, including the Georgia Science Teachers Association and the Georgia Middle School Convention, with more to come in March though July.
Behind the Scenes
Go to the other side of the Treatment Window, get a closer look at the patients, off of the pavilion walkway! Take a behind-the-scenes tour! You will visit food preparation areas, animal holding areas, and the treatment, X-ray and Surgery Rooms. Saturdays and Sundays at 2 P.M. on a first come first served basis,-Reservations are required. Call early or sign up in the Gift Shop-Group size is limited to 10 guests. (912-635-4444) Cost: $25/Adults - $15/Children (Must be at least 10 years of age). Price includes admission.
An Update on our New Patients!
Our newest patient is a green sea turtle named Charlotte, who weighed 12 pounds upon arrival. Charlotte was found on January 17, 2008 washed up on the beach at Cumberland Island. She was quickly delivered to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center by our Georgia DNR colleagues. Charlotte was the first sea turtle stranding of 2008 for the state of Georgia. The top of her shell was covered in barnacles and algae that were carefully removed. This revealed several old boat propeller wounds. We placed her in a shallow tank of water to test her swimming abilities and found out she was a floater; Charlotte could not dive or swim underwater. Her hind end actually floats higher than her front! Although not readily apparent after an x-ray, we suspect there might be damage to her spine. We are planning on doing a CT scan on her in the near future to give us a better idea of the extent of her injuries and long-term prognosis. Thankfully, Charlotte has been eating very well. She absolutely loves bell peppers and cucumbers.
The Georgia Sea Turtle Center has been very busy with turtle patients and we now have a full house. In fact, we divided several of the tanks up so we could fit 2 turtles in some of them. Griffin, a male loggerhead sea turtle, is finally showing interest in eating on his own. This is a huge step in his recovery. We are offering him seafood (fish, squid, crabs) throughout the day and are continuing to tube feed him an Ensure/Fish shake once a day.
Recently we performed health checkups on Griffin, Vida, and Spitfire, all loggerhead sea turtles at the center. Their examinations consisted of weighing and lab work. Griffin weighed in at 193.6 pounds while Vida weighed 91 pounds and Spitfire weighed 118.8 pounds. Vida and Spitfire are on the road to recovery and should be released sometime this spring.
Tags: , Georgia Sea Turtle Center, jekyll island, sea turtles
