Teamwork, technology and turtle-y teachable moments

You’ve heard the proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child”? Well, we’re tweaking that a little because – believe it or not – it also takes a village to rescue a turtle. The New York Marine Rescue Centre has a core team of eight, who rescue stranded sea turtles, seals and even small whales, then nurse each one until it is ready to be released back into the wild. But around them is a network of over 200 local volunteers and supporters – including the team at Canon USA.

Led by Executive Director, Maxine Montello, the centre is busy all year round, responding to rescue alerts and maintaining a hospital, as well as undertaking research projects and plenty of outreach and education programmes. “But turtles definitely take up most of our time,” she says. “They get stranded for a variety of reasons – mostly human related – like, entanglement in gear, ingestion of marine pollution, or being hit by boats. And then we have a phenomenon called ‘cold stunning’.”

Cold stunning is an increasing problem for sea turtles and Maxine and her team are seeing this condition, which is similar to hypothermia, more and more each year. “They're cold-blooded animals and can't regulate their internal temperature,” she explains. “And because we’ve been missing fall – going from summer straight into winter – they're not getting temperature cues to migrate.”

So, instead of being able to gently ‘feel’ when it is time to migrate to warmer waters, the sudden decrease in temperature takes them by surprise. And because turtles don’t generate their own heat, they suddenly become so cold that their circulation decreases, bodily functions slow and they become so lethargic that they are often mistaken for being dead. And this is the point at which they are most at risk, often ending up stranded on the shore and almost unidentifiable as turtles.

“At the beginning of the season they're very small – the size of a dinner plate – and hidden in the rack line [where debris is deposited by the high tide],” Maxine explains. “So, people are looking for a brown stone on a brown beach, which is really challenging. But the time we find them is crucial, because the sooner they can come to us, the higher their chance of survival.” And this is where the community comes into its own, with citizen scientists, retirees, school groups and more, patrolling ‘hotspot’ beaches at times of peak risk, all trained to know exactly what they are looking for and what to do.

Once these turtles are safely in the New York Marine Rescue Centre hospital, the team help them return to health, which can take six to nine months of rehabilitation from dehydration, injury, shell damage and even pneumonia. “During that time, they can double or triple in size and our goal is to get them released.” With around 100+ animals in treatment at the centre every year, it’s a lot of work to rehabilitate them, just to wave goodbye on the shore. So, Maxine and the team also have a research programme, gathering data from the turtles after they are released back into the wild.

“Some are given flipper tags or PIT tags, like the kind of microchip your pet would get, and these are great if it’s spotted or re-captured. But what really helps us are satellite tracking devices.” Canon USA has been sponsoring several satellite trackers every year for over a decade, which allow Maxine and her team to monitor exactly what the turtles are doing, the minute they return to the water. “These devices can last over 100 days, but one of our Canon tags has been tracking for over two years, which is pretty awesome,” smiles Maxine. The whereabouts of the turtles can be seen on the New York Marine Rescue Centre website and the data is downloaded and analysed every thirty days, which helps the team gain valuable insights. “The tags show us where they’re moving to, what the hotspots are and when they start leaving this area, which is super important.”

Education and outreach are also essential to the centre, as public awareness is critical to their work. Spending time with schools also nurtures the next generation of marine conservationists and local volunteers. So, over the last three years, Canon USA has also partnered with the centre on a new marine science education programme with local middle schools. Children learn all about the work of the centre, enjoy a visit to the ‘turtle hospital’ and take part in a beach clean-up. 

But the biggest memories are made when they name a turtle, watch as it is released back into the sea and then they write its story. The Adventures of Peachy Keen and Poseidon Gets Rescued were both written and illustrated by students, printed by Canon and are on sale in the centre gift shop and online. And this year will be the turn of Midas the turtle to step into the spotlight.

It’s an important full circle moment for the community in so many ways – all the hard work to return a healthy turtle to the sea and learn about their habits, while bringing new hearts and minds to the conservation space. “Because turtles are endangered,” warns Maxine. “Gaining insight on what's happening with them paints a better picture for everyone.”