The waters that surround our island are home to fish, mollusks, crustaceans and other underwater creatures. They are also host to seals and turtles. The Riverhead Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to the rehabilitation of stranded sea life as well as to the education of the public about our local marine ecology, has come to the rescue of numerous turtles since the water temperatures dropped last fall.
Turtles are reptiles. They are cold blooded, they require air for oxygenation and they do not lay their eggs under water. Sea turtles subsist on an omnivorous diet of seaweed, crabs, snails, jellyfish and other marine life. There are four species of sea turtles that commonly dwell off of Long Island’s shores, and the populations of all four of them are either threatened or endangered. The largest of the four is the leatherback, identified by the characteristic black, leather-like skin that covers its shell, or carapace. The green turtle, although not herbivorous, prefers a diet in which plant material is the predominant ingredient. The other two sea turtles are the loggerhead and the Kemp Ridley.
The Kemp Ridley is the smallest of the four sea turtles, both in size and in number. Although it is the most abundant of the sea turtles that are found in Long Island’s waters, it is in fact critically endangered. Documentation of Kemp Ridley turtles sited in the Sound dates back to the early 1900s. The number of Kemp Ridley turtles has since declined sharply, due to increased beachfront development, increased boat traffic, fatal boat strikes, oil spills and other manmade perils. Trawling nets that were once used by commercial fishermen for gathering and hauling in shrimp were responsible for sea turtle deaths until legislation mandated the use of turtle excluder devices when trawling the Atlantic waterways to prevent the turtles from becoming snared in the nets.
One of the natural threats to the lives of our sea turtles is a common condition called cold stunning. The Kemp Ridley turtle nests along the Gulf Coast of Mexico, and the young turtles migrate up the Atlantic seaboard to feed and live their young lives, returning to Mexico’s shorelines when they are ready to nest. Those that get caught in our northern waters after fall's chilly temperatures have set in become cold stunned, a term used to describe a state of hypothermia that afflicts sea turtles when the water temperature drops below 55 degrees. Because turtles are cold-blooded, they are not able to regulate their body temperature. The effects of cold stunning include a drop in heart rate and circulation, lethargy, disorientation and shock. Turtles that are found cold stunned on the beach are often immobile, appearing stunned. They can suffer from pneumonia, and if they are not rescued and properly rehabilitated, they will die.
The Riverhead Foundation has released a respectable number of turtles that they have successfully rehabilitated. Once a turtle is ready for release back into its natural habitat, it is equipped with a satellite tracking device so that the turtle can be monitored and valuable information can be garnered in the ongoing efforts to research ways to save the turtles from extinction. Each year, the 5K Run For the Ridley marathon takes place in Riverhead to raise funding for research and care and to raise awareness of the sea turtle’s plight. The 18th annual Run For the Ridley will be held later this year, on October 24, 2015.
If you find a sea turtle, or any other marine life, washed up on the beach and in possible distress, you are urged to call the Riverhead Foundation’s emergency hotline at (631)369-9829. Do not return a turtle to the water, and do not attempt to rewarm the turtle if you believe that it is cold stunned. Efforts to do so can throw the turtle into thermal shock. With what we all hope to be the final snow event of the season behind us, the water temperatures can only begin to warm up. This should usher in the seasonal end of cold stunned turtles, and Long Islanders will welcome a new crop of juvenile Ridleys for their summer sojourn. A return to the waves and beaches is, after all, what summer on Long Island is all about.
Turtles are reptiles. They are cold blooded, they require air for oxygenation and they do not lay their eggs under water. Sea turtles subsist on an omnivorous diet of seaweed, crabs, snails, jellyfish and other marine life. There are four species of sea turtles that commonly dwell off of Long Island’s shores, and the populations of all four of them are either threatened or endangered. The largest of the four is the leatherback, identified by the characteristic black, leather-like skin that covers its shell, or carapace. The green turtle, although not herbivorous, prefers a diet in which plant material is the predominant ingredient. The other two sea turtles are the loggerhead and the Kemp Ridley.
The Kemp Ridley is the smallest of the four sea turtles, both in size and in number. Although it is the most abundant of the sea turtles that are found in Long Island’s waters, it is in fact critically endangered. Documentation of Kemp Ridley turtles sited in the Sound dates back to the early 1900s. The number of Kemp Ridley turtles has since declined sharply, due to increased beachfront development, increased boat traffic, fatal boat strikes, oil spills and other manmade perils. Trawling nets that were once used by commercial fishermen for gathering and hauling in shrimp were responsible for sea turtle deaths until legislation mandated the use of turtle excluder devices when trawling the Atlantic waterways to prevent the turtles from becoming snared in the nets.
One of the natural threats to the lives of our sea turtles is a common condition called cold stunning. The Kemp Ridley turtle nests along the Gulf Coast of Mexico, and the young turtles migrate up the Atlantic seaboard to feed and live their young lives, returning to Mexico’s shorelines when they are ready to nest. Those that get caught in our northern waters after fall's chilly temperatures have set in become cold stunned, a term used to describe a state of hypothermia that afflicts sea turtles when the water temperature drops below 55 degrees. Because turtles are cold-blooded, they are not able to regulate their body temperature. The effects of cold stunning include a drop in heart rate and circulation, lethargy, disorientation and shock. Turtles that are found cold stunned on the beach are often immobile, appearing stunned. They can suffer from pneumonia, and if they are not rescued and properly rehabilitated, they will die.
The Riverhead Foundation has released a respectable number of turtles that they have successfully rehabilitated. Once a turtle is ready for release back into its natural habitat, it is equipped with a satellite tracking device so that the turtle can be monitored and valuable information can be garnered in the ongoing efforts to research ways to save the turtles from extinction. Each year, the 5K Run For the Ridley marathon takes place in Riverhead to raise funding for research and care and to raise awareness of the sea turtle’s plight. The 18th annual Run For the Ridley will be held later this year, on October 24, 2015.
If you find a sea turtle, or any other marine life, washed up on the beach and in possible distress, you are urged to call the Riverhead Foundation’s emergency hotline at (631)369-9829. Do not return a turtle to the water, and do not attempt to rewarm the turtle if you believe that it is cold stunned. Efforts to do so can throw the turtle into thermal shock. With what we all hope to be the final snow event of the season behind us, the water temperatures can only begin to warm up. This should usher in the seasonal end of cold stunned turtles, and Long Islanders will welcome a new crop of juvenile Ridleys for their summer sojourn. A return to the waves and beaches is, after all, what summer on Long Island is all about.