CTE/FCAT CONNECTION
Sunday, April 4, 2004
Crowd sees off saved sea turtles Saturday
CINDY F. CRAWFORD
MEWS-JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
PONCE INLET — Shaggy and Big Red waved their flippers to the crowd Saturday afternoon then took a short walk down a sandy red carpet and headed back home to the sea.
Camera flashes went off and 400 well-wishers waved goodbye as the loggerhead turtles returned to the wild after six months of rehab at the Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet.
Scientists released the reptiles into the crashing waves as part of the center's second annual Turtle Day.
"This is where they're supposed to be," said a melancholy Nancy Yates, who found Shaggy in October when he washed up in Brevard County — covered in hair algae, hence the name.
Boaters in the Halifax River south of the Dunlawton Bridge found Big Red, whose shell was consumed by red algae, about the same time, said Michelle Bauer, a sea turtle rehabilitation specialist. Both turtles had foreign objects lodged in their intestines.
Before taking the turtles two miles up Atlantic Avenue to Winter Haven Park to be released, Marine Science Center workers invited families to the Lighthouse Drive location to celebrate the center's successful rehab of 60 sea turtles since it opened in June 2002.
There, adults learned more about groups such as Turtle Patrol, Audubon Society and Ocean Conservancy while children took part in story time, face painting and arts and crafts.
Five-year-old Jazmine Bell said she had never seen a real loggerhead before Turtle Day. The kindergartner got a peek from the second floor above the tanks, and she went home with a pink and purple version painted on her cheek.
Dad J.R. Bell of Daytona Beach said he brought Jazmine and her brother Alex, 8, for an educational lesson about nature.
"They usually like playing video games," he said.
Even beachgoers who didn't know about Turtle Day lined up along the beach to form a path and watch the turtles walk toward the water.
Orlando resident Scott Doggett had made a turtle in the sand earlier in the day and chuckled at the coincidence of seeing the real thing hours later.
"Someone saw my turtle and told me this was going to happen, so I stayed," he said.
As crews carried 93-pound Shaggy to the water, Port Orange resident Mary Krueger waved goodbye. "I wish I had my camera," she said, following behind nephew Connor, 3, for a closer look.
Two-year-old Ivy Grace Wyman wasn't sure what the lumbering shell-backed creatures were, but she wanted to chase them, said her grandmother, Darlene Schultz of Ponce Inlet.
"Where did the turtles go?" Schultz asked the toddler. Ivy Grace looked out to sea and pointed with her chubby finger.
"Beach," she said.
