- I think I see it.
Yep, here's our turtle.
And it does look like we are in time
for this sea turtle to have a chance.
- [Adam] Getting these guys through
and back into the ocean is critical.
- Poor little turtle.
(dramatic electronic tones)
(rocks cracking)
All right guys, we just got the call.
We are on a sea turtle rescue mission
and right now, there is a turtle on a beach
about 15 miles north from here and needs our help.
These sea turtles, when they end up beached,
it's because they're distressed and they can no longer swim
and without programs like the one we're participating in,
they would all certainly die.
So needless to say, this sea turtle right now,
its life depends on us.
Just this past year alone,
more than 850 sea turtles were rescued
off the shores of Massachusetts,
a number that has been sadly increasing.
Endangered sea turtles like the Kemp's ridley,
green and loggerhead are washing up
on beaches due to cold-stunning
and the changing climate is only making matters worse.
I think I see it.
Yep, here's our turtle.
A volunteer was combing this beach
and they discovered this Kemp's ridley sea turtle
and this is exactly what they're supposed to do.
They're supposed to take the turtles
off of the beach, away from the wind
and then you can see it was covered here
with this bit of straw to protect it from exposure
and it does look like we are in time
for this sea turtle to have a chance
because you can see it still has a little bit
of strength in its neck, just enough to pick up its head
and that is a very good sign because most of the turtles
that you find that are cold-stunned cannot move whatsoever.
So let's bundle this little turtle up and take it
to the Wellfleet Sanctuary where it will start its process
of rehabilitation and hopeful re-release back into the wild.
Rapidly fluctuating sea temperatures
due to climate change are narrowing the window
for these turtles to safely migrate South each year.
Rising sea temperatures are holding the turtles
in Northern waters for too long and any sudden drop
in water temperature below 50 degrees results
in a mass cold-stunning event for these marine reptiles.
We have to be super quiet because these turtles
are already really stressed and loud noises
have been proven to stress them even further.
Poor little turtle.
We did notice that it had a bit
of a response when we picked it up off the beach,
like it had some ability to raise its head.
- So that's pretty rare.
Honestly a lot of the time,
these turtles are barely moving at all.
Sometimes we'll think a turtle's dead
and we'll leave it overnight to assess
in the morning to make sure that it's still alive.
- [Mark] Cool.
Is this our turtle?
- This is our turtle. - All right.
How do we know that this turtle isn't dead?
- So when we first bring it onto this processing table,
we will check to see if its flippers are in rigor.
- Rigor is short for rigor mortis.
When an animal dies, it starts to seize up
and all of its joints and body parts become stiff.
- [Sasha] So there was slight movement right there.
- I saw that. - Yep.
We'll kind of gently tug on their back flippers
and then we'll touch their eye
for a small eye response as well
and then what we'll do is we will actually use this PIT tag
scanner here because sometimes these turtles wash in
and they have been tagged and no tag was detected here.
Then the next thing we'll do
is we will take measurements of its carapace.
We will look to see if there are any injuries
on the turtle anywhere, sometimes from pecking from seagulls
if they've been sitting on the beach for awhile and then
they'll sometimes have some wounds on their carapace.
- And that's why it's so important
to get these turtles off the beach.
- Yes.
- As quickly as possible.
Each animal receives a number
upon entry to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
and of the four sea turtles we assisted in rescuing,
number 569 was the first to be sent for urgent care.
You're on your way, bud.
So we quickly mobilized and followed it
to the New England Aquarium's Sea Turtle Hospital.
Look at all these turtles.
Okay, we'll see you in a little bit.
Let's go, guys.
(anxious violin music)
All right, here we are at the Sea Turtle Hospital.
Let's go inside to see
our Kemp's ridley start its rehabilitation process.
Come on this way.
All right, how's a going, Adam?
Thanks for having us. - Good.
Thank you for coming.
- So are these our turtles, is that?
- These are our turtles and you have 569
and the Kemp's are very similar looking and as you'll see,
there's lots of turtles everywhere.
Only once they get into the water,
they look even more similar.
So we'll bring 'em up, we'll put a number
on their shell and we put a band around their flipper.
So that way when we're looking for certain turtles,
especially when they're in the water,
they'll be easier to find. - Awesome.
- [Adam] Now we're gonna try to listen
to see what the heart rate sounds like.
- [Mark] Oh, cool.
And their metabolism at this rate is very slow.
- [Adam] Extremely slow.
- And that's why you need these
special instruments to be able to read that.
We're listening for the turtle's heartbeat.
So far, I just hear static.
Oh.
I think I just heard a whoosh.
So this turtle's significantly lower heart rate
than it's going to be when it leaves.
- Exactly, yep. - Okay.
- [Adam] So with that,
we will give it a dose of epinephrine.
That will help get that heart rate a little bit
up there and a little bit more prepped for a swim.
- So this is like the jumpstart
for the rehabilitation process here at the hospital.
Once a sea turtle receives epinephrine,
it is then placed in a small pool of water for observation.
Also called a swim test,
this is where the clinical team will look
for signs of other damage and possible infections.
Let's see how 569 does.
- So that's a great sign obviously,
that nice little breath there
and the turtle's going into the water and so yeah,
I mean he's ready to go. - Look at that.
- For these turtles, freshwater
is important because of the dehydration piece.
It helps rehydrate them.
One or two days in that freshwater won't be detrimental
and then they're into the full saltwater tanks.
These turtles have been out there breathing in cold air,
water, so we see a lot of pneumonia.
So you can kinda see, he's slowing down a little bit there.
- [Mark] Okay.
Hey buddy. - We also see how high
in the water he is.
So he's definitely got some gas
in his system there that's keeping him very floaty.
As you can see, he has some odd
coloration in those front flippers.
So he may have some skin issues that over the next few days
as he warms up might become a little bit more prevalent.
- So I'm not trying to put you on the spot,
Adam but in your professional experience,
how would you say our turtle here, number 569
is looking in terms of its potential for rehabilitation?
- Yeah, no, the prognosis
for this turtle at this point would be good.
I saw some bubbles coming out of the-
- Okay. - Nares, the nose.
Then you saw him lift his head and took a nice breath.
So that's all great things.
- Love it, that is so great to hear
and it's so nice to see the turtle lively again.
I feel like most people who would
encounter one of these cold-stunned turtles
on the beach might even think they were already dead.
But sure enough, here at the hospital
after a little shot of epinephrine and a chance to swim,
we've got a lot of movement.
All right, so now that our turtle has swam
for the first time at the hospital,
part of the rehabilitation process of warming them back up
to the appropriate temperature, which is about 72 degrees,
takes a few days.
After treating nearly 5,000 turtles,
this facility has learned quite a bit about how
to bring the temperature back up in the appropriate way
and the best way they found to do it
is a staged process over days using multiple tanks.
Over the next two days, they will actually be placed
in the saltwater vats that will raise them up
to about 65 degrees and then eventually up
to the 72 degrees that you'll see here in the holding tanks.
These turtles here,
they're already being raised up to temperature.
Pretty cool and definitely something that really
helps these turtles stand a chance of being re-released.
Along with being critically endangered, the Kemp's ridley
is also the rarest sea turtle on the planet.
Once abundant, their population suffered
a massive crash in the 1980s where as few
as 250 nesting females were estimated to remain.
Luckily for the world's smallest and rarest sea turtle,
large-scale conservation efforts helped restore
their population to stability by the mid-2000s.
However with current climate trends being as they are,
the pressure is now back on
to save this species from extinction.
I've heard reports that the Kemp's ridley are somewhere
in the population of 30 to 40,000 individuals in the world.
Is that what you've heard also?
- [Adam] They are a critically endangered population.
- So I mean the fact that you're seeing
thousands of turtles come to the facility,
this is a a significant mass-
- Yes. - Of this species.
- [Adam] Getting these guys through
and back into the ocean is critical.
- Well, this is not the end of the road for the video, guys.
We actually have one more step that we want
to show you as part of this turtle rehabilitation program.
This one though is gonna take us
on a short trip to the airport.
So as you can see,
we are no longer in the Sea Turtle Hospital.
We are in an air hanger because
there's an amazing volunteer program called Turtles Fly Too
that takes these sea turtles down to warmer waters
in the Southern United States where
they will finish their rehabilitation
and be released back into the wild much sooner
than Mother Nature would allow here in New England
and we just got word that the turtles arrived.
So it's time to get to work and load up these sea turtles.
All right, so you have a vanload and a truckload
full of sea turtles that are being loaded up by volunteers
and aquarium staff onto this aircraft right now.
They are trying to set a record today
by loading 100 sea turtles onto this airplane.
That's a lot of reptiles.
So right now, the pilot and the co-pilot are up there
playing a little bit of turtle "Tetris" to try to get
all of these animals loaded up onto this aircraft.
It takes a lot of resources to fly these turtles,
so they want to make sure every flight
is efficient and as productive as they can.
Trying to get one more up there?
- [Staff] Yeah, I think they have
a little shorter banana box.
(inspirational violin, piano music)
- There we go, okay. - That locks 'em in.
- Nice.
Oh.
There's more turtles.
(staff member giggles)
There's always more turtles. - There's always more turtles.
(inspirational violin music)
- Last one for you. - Last one.
Okay. - Yeah.
- Thank you. - No, thank you.
- All right, I've got the final
turtle box to load into the aircraft.
Last one. - Last one.
- Something I never thought I would say,
turtles on an airplane.
But if you're in New England,
it happens about a dozen times a year.
That's cool.
The turtles that make the flight to Florida
are the ones ready to be released back into the wild.
But others needing more long-term rehabilitation
like our friend 569 will continue to receive care
at the Sea Turtle Hospital until they are ready
to be released when spring returns to New England.
Researchers have predicted that by 2031,
just eight years from this video's release,
thousands of cold-stunned sea turtles will wash up
on New England's shores every single year.
It takes an amazing collaboration to combat
these events and return healthy sea turtles
into the ocean to rejoin their populations.
From emergency veterinarians to airplane pilots
to hundreds of beachcombing volunteers,
I was so proud to play a small part
in saving these rare and endangered animals.
But the work continues every single day,
from the cold shores of Cape Cod
to the warm waters of South Florida
and these wildlife heroes need our support.
Please join Brave Wilderness
and the New England Aquarium by clicking the link
in the description to donate, spread awareness
or perhaps volunteer yourself in the effort
to save these beloved treasures of our oceans.
(animal howls) (birds chirping)