Rescuers free rare green sea turtle

Animal hooked by fisherman crawls to ocean

BY DAN GARCIA
and JIM WAYMER

Stormy times
Since last year's hurricanes claimed about nine of every 10 green sea turtle nests, biologists hope threats such as hurricanes and fishing gear spare the turtles this year.

SATELLITE BEACH - When "Uncle Sam" was placed on the beach by a volunteer with the Sea Turtle Preservation Society, he hesitated on the tile-smooth sand, seemingly taken aback by the noisy, crashing surf before him.

But, instinctively, he began a slow crawl toward the ocean, and in a few moments, "Uncle Sam," an endangered green sea turtle, disappeared into the foamy water, returning to the bosom of the Atlantic as about 100 people cheered.

"Uncle Sam," so named because he accidentally was hooked by a fisherman July 4, was back in his habitat after a 16-day rehabilitation period.

Thanks to Preservation Society volunteers, "Uncle Sam" became a survivor among an endangered species struggling against the perils of fishing gear, plastic bottles, boat propellers, disease and man-made beaches often too flat and compact for them to nest.

Nancy Yates, a stranded turtle coordinator, said green sea turtles are a relative rarity because traditionally, the rate of survival for hatchlings is 1 in 1,000. "The problem is that 200 or 300 hundred years ago, 1 in 1,000 was OK, until humans started doing the things they do, such as commercial fishing, development on the beach and pollution, and that make the odds so much worse for sea turtles," Yates said.

"Uncle Sam" was not the first green turtle to get hooked by fishermen. "Sometimes we can get the hook right out, but in this case the hook was in too far, and he had to go to the rehab center," Yates said.

Walter and Lorraine Danico, retirees in Indialantic, were among the observers who cheered the turtle's release.

"If we didn't take care of these turtles, there would be nothing left for the future," Walter Danico said.

While green sea turtles are the big success story of the five sea turtle species that nest in Florida, they're still among the most vulnerable. They frequent places where fishing is best, such as inlets, putting them in the path of fishing line and hooks. They also tend to nest later in the summer than the other four sea turtle species, so are more prone to their nests being wiped out during peak hurricane season.

"Many of their nests were still incubating," Llew Ehrhart, a marine turtle researcher for Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, said of the nests lost to last year's hurricanes.

Sea turtles face uncertain nesting years ahead in Brevard and statewide, depending on how they take to post-hurricane beaches, many "resanded" by dredging. New beaches usually cause two consecutive below-average turtle nesting seasons, because the new sand from dredges is too compact or appears unnatural to the turtles.

Judging by the numbers, the turtles seem OK with newly renourished beaches.

As of Wednesday, greens laid 1,058 nests, already surpassing the 933 nets they'd laid last year before the hurricanes wiped out 86 percent of those.

"There's a good chance that we're going to have quite a bit more," Ehrhart said. "We may well be up around 2,500."

Brevard County hired Ehrhart to document the recent beach renourishment's effects on sea turtle nesting.

He said the nesting so far has been better than expected the first year after a beach renourishment. He won't know the new beaches' true impact until later this summer, when he and his students can tally how many eggs successfully hatched. They dig up the nests 5-10 days after they've hatched.

Ehrhart suspects cold water that welled up from the ocean floor in 2003 may also have had long-term impacts on turtle nesting. It resulted in fewer invertebrates for turtles to eat and may have disrupted the cold-blooded reptiles' nesting cycle.

Greens also struggle with a viral infection that can kill about 12 percent of those infected in the Indian River Lagoon.

Some 50 percent to 70 percent of the greens in the lagoon are infected by the virus, which causes wart-like tumors -- some as large as tennis balls.

Then there's fishing gear.

"Discarded monofilament line is just as much a threat to sea turtles as it is to brown pelicans," Ehrhart said. "It's just a train wreck. It is really serious."

He recently found a dead green sea turtle wrapped in fishing line at the mouth of Port Canaveral's Trident submarine basin.

Ehrhart said protecting the turtles benefits ecotourism, as well as the health of the ecosystem.

"Green turtles, loggerheads and leatherbacks are all representative of Florida and our wildlife heritage," he said.

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