APRIL 2, 2020
by Gisele Galoustian, Florida Atlantic University
As the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic escalates, marine biologists at Florida Atlantic University acknowledge that "wild" life must go on. Three 6-month-old green sea turtles, the last batch of the 2019 hatchlings at the FAU Marine Laboratory at the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex, were ready to be released. However, with closed beaches and scuba boats not permitted to travel, researchers from the FAU Marine Laboratory had to get creative.
FAU worked with members of the United States Coast Guard to provide the three female baby sea turtles with a special "seat" on board a 33-foot special law enforcement (SPC-LE) boat for their journey home. On March 27, they were released about 17 to 18 miles off shore in the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf Stream Current.
The threatened green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) named for the green color of the fat under its shell, normally travels to offshore waters as a hatchling and stays offshore for several years before going to the coastal reefs, estuaries, and around islands where it finds feeding areas with nutrient-rich algae and seagrass beds. Green sea turtles are different than loggerhead turtles because they are stronger swimmers and are more likely to burrow into sargassum, which is floating brown algae out on the high seas.
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