Sea Turtles and Seals go to the Doctor too!
by Kim Marko
With winter right around the corner, we are quickly approaching the cold stunning season for sea turtles. When the water gets too cold and a sea turtles internal body temperature gets below 55 degrees, they start to go into a state of hypothermia and their bodies start to slow down. This often results in them being washed ashore and without the proper medical help, they have a small chance of survival; this is where the Riverhead Foundation comes in. In addition to sea turtles, the Riverhead Foundation does a lot of work rehabilitating seals that have stranded. Seals strand for many different reasons such as, being hit by a boat, getting caught in debris or they might be ill. Regardless of the reason they come into the facility, they do everything in their power to help the animal be strong enough to go back into the wild.
When any animal enters the foundation, they go through an initial medial check to see how severe of a case it is, so they can tailor the treatment to the specific animal. Each animal gets a sample of blood taken, this blood work will tell them a few different things like their total protein levels, glucose levels and their kidney functions. Knowing this information is crucial when determining if the animal needs any medicine. They will also perform an x-ray on the animals which allows them to see if their is any internal problems that they may need to worry about. Seals do not drink water, but they still need water to survive. They get their water from the fish they consume, but sometimes when the seals come in they are unable to eat the fish on their own. In cases like this they actually stick a tube into their stomach where they blend the fish and they are able to assist them in the eating process and also give them any additional medicine they may need. Like I mentioned earlier a cold stunned sea turtles body temperature is below 55 degrees and it severely slows down their body. The average heart rate for a turtle is about 30 beats per minute, but in severe cold stun cases, the heart rate could be as slow as one beat every three minutes. The normal average body temperature for a sea turtle is 75 degrees. It is important for them not to raise their body temperature too quickly, so they slowly raise their body temperature about 5 degrees everyday until they get to their normal temperature. Once at a normal body temperature they can keep moving forward with any other medical treatments needed and get them back into the water as soon as possible.
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| In the room where they perform the initial assessment of the animals, they have signs hanging up showing where you perform the blood sampling. |
Returning Marine Animals Home
by Cassidy Bell
While visiting the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, it was amazing to hear all of the different methods that they use to take in and care for injured marine animals. But perhaps even more amazing than what they did at their facility was what they did after the animals no longer needed their care. The Riverhead Foundation takes in a large number of sick and injured seals, sea turtles, and even occasionally cetaceans in order to help them after they catch illnesses or get injuries from natural causes, like shark bites, or human causes, like boat strikes. Many of these animals are released back into the wild, such as the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle Cardamom in the front room of the Foundation that is waiting for release. However, this isn’t where most of these animals’ stories end.
Before releasing healed animals back into the wild, the Riverhead Foundation, along with many other conservation programs throughout the country, tag the animals so that their progress through the ocean can be tracked and they can be identified if ever caught or injured again. Every seal that is released is given a tag on its hind left flipper that gives it an identification code as well as marking it as an individual helped by the Riverhead Foundation. Some seals are also given satellite tags which, while certainly more expensive than flipper tags, allows for the conservationists to track the location, diving depth, and hauling behaviors of the seals for a set period of time. The sea turtles are also given flipper tags. Two metal tags are placed on the turtle, one on each hind flipper, and work similarly to the flipper tags of the seals. However, the satellite tags are a little big for the sea turtles. Instead, a tag called a pit tag is inserted that works like the micro-tags that many people use on their pet dogs. A hand-held machine is used to scan the turtles and a code is shown that identifies it as an individual and shows where it was originally tagged. With this technology, the Riverhead Foundation is able to track the young animals that it helps as has found them later on in life as successful, mature nest-builders. The success of the Foundation’s release program and their ability to track the animals that they help all the way through adulthood shows the importance of programs such as these and the importance of supporting local conservation efforts in whatever way you can – they are always looking for volunteers!
The New York Nester
by Emily Richters
This year in June 2018, a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle made a nest on Breezy Point beach. There, she lay 110 eggs. This was a huge deal because this is the first sea turtle documented to nest in New York! Coincidentally, she laid these eggs on a Piper Plover protected nesting area where there was easy access to protective gear. 60 days later, the nest was threatened with extreme high tides. Rescuers took the initiative to excavate the nest and incubate the eggs in a cooler containing sand from the same beach. This way, they were sure to prevent the eggs from drowning. Not only are these sea turtles critically endangered, but these were to be the first documented sea turtles to hatch in New York. All safety measures had to be instated.
Once rescuers started to notice signs of hatching 12 days later, the eggs were immediately transported to the same exact spot they came from. Out of the 110 eggs laid, 96 survived to crawl out towards the ocean. Most of these baby sea turtles are assumed to be male. Reptiles have a unique way of determining gender, and that is by temperature. If the eggs are incubated in warm sand, the hatchlings are most likely to be mostly females. If the eggs are incubated in cool sands, the litter is most likely to be dominated by males. Researchers are still unsure where the mother sea turtle came from. Genetics tests are being done using the DNA of the unborn hatchlings to see if there is a population match. This will pinpoint the location where she came from.
Adult females only reproduce once every 2 to 3 years. During this time, she carefully chooses a safe beach, and works hard to create a protective nest. She will relocate and build multiple nests until she makes a perfect one. Then, she lays her eggs which could be up to 150 at a time! There is currently no nesting protocol in New York State. There was never a need for one. A protocol was never drawn up for sea turtle nesting since there was never any documented occurrence of one. However, this has all changed this year. As of 2018, a new nesting protocol is being drawn up. Maybe in 2 years, this female will come back to nest again. Sea turtles usually return to the same nesting area in which they were born from. From birth, they usually take 15 to 20 years to sexually mature. Maybe in 15 years, the surviving females will come back to this beach to nest for the first time. We must prepare now for when this happens, because this may be the start to hatching events in New York.
Turtles
by Sarah Stromski
Sea turtle are vital to our ocean’s ecosystems, although it may not seem like they have the biggest impact. Some common species in our area around Long Island consist of Leatherback, Atlantic Green, Kemps Ridley, Loggerhead, and Hawksbill. Leatherbacks have been known to eat upwards of about 400 pounds of jellyfish each day, keeping populations in check. With a control of the jellyfish populations, fish stocks are able to recover faster, since jellyfish prefer to feed on fish larvae and eggs. Atlantic Greens help to maintain healthy seagrass beds, since they constantly graze upon the beds, which prevent overgrowing, and decomposition. This is especially important around Long Island since our seagrass beds are declining rapidly. Hawksbills help to mitigate sponge populations, thus helping coral reef communities, since they are both major competitors for space. This creates more habitat complexity, and therefore more biodiversity. Loggerhead sea turtles feed by clearing the sand in order to reach their preferred prey, crustaceans. By clearing the sand away, it aerates the surrounding sand and increases nutrient distribution of that area as well as species diversity.
One of the biggest threats to sea turtle populations worldwide is plastic. Some of you may have seen videos such as the one where a man is pulling out a straw lodged in the nasal cavity of a poor sea turtle. Straws are not the only threat though; plastic bags are another threat since they resemble jellyfish and sometimes other plastics can resemble other normal food items. By ingesting these plastics, the turtles can starve to death since plastic cannot be properly digested, like their normal food so it all remains in their stomachs. After learning of the importance of sea turtles for ecosystems, I hope you will take a moment to consider not using single-use plastics, because even some recycled single-use plastics such as straws and plastic bags, make their way into the oceans.
Fishes Can’t Climb Trees, But They Can Use Ladders
by Delphine Mossman
Though the salmon is the most iconic, there are many fishes that split their lives between salt and fresh water, in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and their respective coasts. Here on Long Island, the alewife and the American eel are two such species. Alewives mirror salmon in their breeding patterns; the adults live at sea, returning to a river or stream only to spawn before they swim back to the ocean. Juveniles typically stay in the river for only a short period of time before making their way down to the sea as well, where they grow and mature to repeat the process over again.
American eels, on the other hand, have almost the exact opposite lifestyle. The adults of the species live in freshwater and migrate downstream to the Sargasso Sea off the east coast of North America to spawn and die. The juveniles, known as “glass eels” due to their transparency, must then make their way back upstream to their adult habitat, a daunting task for an animal not even as long as the palm of your hand.
Though these species travel in opposite directions, they are both deeply affected by human development of rivers, lakes, streams, and other bodies of freshwater. An alewife can only jump over a barrier about six inches tall; any taller and the rest of the upstream habitat is effectively closed off. Glass eels are even less well off, even less able to jump barriers or swim against powerful currents generated by dams. And, of course, both are susceptible to toxins in the water, decreased levels of dissolved oxygen due to eutrophication, and overexploitation. It is only in recent decades that measures have been taken in order to mitigate human impact on these species, and other migratory species in the area.
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| A fish ladder in the Peconic River, constructed to allow spawning alewives to move further upstream, past a small dam just out of frame on the left. |
The most widely used method of allowing migratory fishes to go around barriers such as dams is a fish ladder. By redirecting water at a gentler slope than the dam, some fishes can swim up the metal tube and reach more habitat further upstream. This will hopefully allow more to successfully spawn, increasing their numbers. However, these fish ladders are still too steep and the current still too strong for the small glass eels.
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| An eel ladder in the Peconic River, constructed to allow juvenile eels to move further upstream. |
For the eels, a specialized fish ladder known as an eel ladder must be constructed. Eel ladders are formed by a ramp kept minimally wet that extends from the top to bottom of the dam. Because eels can move over material for a limited time as long as it is damp, they are able to “climb” over the dam using the ramp, which is made of some type of material that allows them to slither up it. As with the alewives, the hope is that this will give American eel numbers a boost by opening up more habitat for them to grow in.
Shell for the Sea: boat gas stations
by Claire Garfield
Have you ever wondered how large shipping vessels get fuel? They have to cross the ocean, so they must load up somewhere. Yet a ship designed to carry tons of good can’t simply pull up anywhere and fuel up. Luckily, ships entering and leaving New York City Harbor can make a much-needed stop before a long journey right off the north shore of Long Island.
Having fueling station in a harbor, especially a populated harbor, would be incredibly risky being that as a rule populated areas and combustive substances shouldn’t be mixed. Furthermore, it is incredibly inconvenient for large ships to dock in a harbor to fuel up. The fueling station off of the north shore is in sight of land, but sufficiently off shore as to keep people safe and shipping as stream-lined as possible. The fuel is stored above the bluffs on the shore and makes its way to the fueling station via a connective pipeline that runs along the bottom of the Long Island Sound. The fueling station may seem unimportant, or maybe even a bit bizarre, as it is a rather ugly structure protruding from an otherwise untouched swash of ocean. Despite its looks, the fueling station is of major importance to shipping. A major concern of Super Storm Sandy was the damage done to the fueling stations. Aside from representing a possible environmental and safety issue, the fueling stations are of essential to shipping. So even though it’s just a gas station for a boat, marine fueling stations are really pretty cool and important!
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| Figure 1. A marine fueling station right in our neighborhood. |
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| Figure 2. A view from Riverhead of the Long Island Sound and some bluffs. |
