Information Courtesty of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center Staff

Adopt A Turtle

The GSTC is proud to announce, the long awaited Adopt-a-Turtle Program! With your donation of $50
or more, 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, 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!

Welcome to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center
The GSTC would like to welcome 2 new full-time Educators: Sarah Mathias and Kelly O’Keefe! Sarah began working at the GSTC as an Education Intern in September 2007 after completing her B.S. at Hawaii Pacific University. The programs she’s assisted with and developed here, the school groups she has assisted with and her cheery disposition have earned her a permanent position at the GSTC. Great job Sarah! Kelly comes to us from Powder Springs, Georgia with a B.S. from Berry College (Mount Berry, GA). With a background full of environmental education experience, she is sure to impress us with new ideas!

Join Us for Turtle Tales!
Turtle Tales has been changed! It is now offered on Saturdays at 10:30am and 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! January’s book will
be “Carolina’s Story: Sea Turtles Get Sick Too!” by Donna Rathmell and the craft will be Recycled Sea Turtle Art! Turtle Tales is offered on Saturdays at 10:30am and is FREE with general admission! No reservations required.

Behind the Scenes
Ever wonder what it feels like to be on the other side of the Treatment Window? Wish you could get a closer look at the patients, off of the pavilion walkway? You’re in luck. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center is pleased to offer behind-the-scenes tours. Guests will visit food preparation areas, animal holding areas, and the treatment, X-ray and Surgery Rooms. Come join us for a closer look at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center from the other side of the Treatment Window. Tours are conducted on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 P.M. and are offered 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.

Meet Spitfire!
The newest patient at the GSTC is Spitfire, is a beautiful subadult loggerhead sea turtle that lives up to his name. He has been rambunctiously swimming about his tank and eating everything in site since his arrival. Spitfire came to us from the Marine Science Center in Volusia County Florida on December 3. 2007. He originally stranded October 1, 2007 off the coast of Daytona, Florida. Spitfire is floating and unable to dive correctly. Upon arrival to the GSTC he weighed 102 pounds and he currently weighs 122 pounds.
We are hoping to conduct further diagnostic work including a laproscopy to try to determine the cause of the floating.

Sage & Amelia Go Home to the Gulf
Beginning in mid November we began looking for a ride to the Gulf Stream for our loggerhead hatchling Amelia. Our green sea turtle hatchling, Sage, was not gaining weight as well as we had hoped and we had decided to keep him. Both turtles had been affected by the red tide event that occurred of the Northeast coast of Florida this fall. Amelia came to us on September 26th
and Sage came to us on October 11. We began working with local charter captains and private boat owners as well as the Coast Guard to see if we could get Amelia out before the water temperature dropped to low. Sage must have found out what was happening and not wanted Amelia to have all the fun, because he turned around rather rapidly and started packing on the grams. He was quickly deemed releasable and was ready to go! After several weeks and a huge amount of effort by
Becky Shortland with the Gray’s Reef Marine Sanctuary, LCDR Nancy Whitt, LCDR Eric King and LT. J.G. Smith of US Coast Guard sectors Charleston and Mayport and Captain Raymond Sweatte and the crew of the R/V Savannah out of Skidaway we found them a ride, and it couldn’t have gotten much better for these two lucky little hatchlings. On December 10th Sage, Amelia and a myself were escorted in first class style offshore to the release point upon the 92 foot research vessel the Savannah out of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. After a great night of learning about the benthic sampling that was occuring, we let Sage and Amelia go at approximately 10:00am on Tuesday the 11th. Both turtles did great! Amelia immediately went into camouflage mode and tucked her flippers up against her shell. Sage, however, tried to swim back into the bucket and then swam alongside the boat for several minutes before going off to explore his new world! The staff and volunteers at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center would like to extend a GIANT thank you to all the people that are making this release such a “sailing” success!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 7:55 am and is filed under Beachscape, December 2007, January 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.