Story Seven: The Turtle Hospital

Craig called Emily from the North Queensland Turtle Hospital. It was getting on late in the evening by the time they got the turtle into the shallow tank used for surgeries. The vet was already on her way.

“Hey Emily, how ya goin’?” Craig asked when Emily answered her mobile.

“Not too bad. I’ve just finished entering my data,” Emily responded.

“Good, good. Listen, we’ve just got an injured turtle here at the hospital. Some blokes were snorkeling over at ¬Thunaroo Bay and found her. She must be a nesting female; she’s lucky the boat motor only hit her shell instead of her head.”

“Oh, geez. Is the vet on her way? I’ll come right over.”

“Yeah, Dr. Bryson is on her way. We need a few stitches on the front right flipper. See you soon,” Craig said, hanging up his mobile and returning to the turtle’s tank. Delaney was standing over the turtle, watching her sulk in the shallow water. “She’ll be okay,” Craig told her. “She must have just been hit today, so there hasn’t been much chance for infection yet.”

“Do you think she laid any of her eggs yet?” Delaney asked.

“I don’t know,” Craig said. “She may have laid a clutch or two. She won’t be able to lay them while she’s here, but she’s got a few breeding seasons left in her.”

“They don’t breed every year?” Delaney asked.

“Greens sometimes take up to eight years between breeding seasons, sometimes less. She’s probably still young. She’ll lay eggs again.”

Emily and Dr. Bryson arrived at the same time. “Let’s see her,” Dr. Bryson said, walking over to the tank. “Doesn’t look too bad. We’ll stitch up her flipper, cover up the shell, and give her a few antibiotics.”

Delaney watched as Dr. Bryson sutured the cut on the turtle’s flipper and Emily and Craig prepared fiberglass to cover the cuts on the turtle’s shell that were made by the spinning propeller. The fiber glass would protect the turtle’s organs while the carapace repaired itself.

“That should be good,” Dr. Bryson said as she finished up. She handed Craig some antibiotics. “I’ve already given her some for today, but make sure you finish the treatment. She won’t be able to get any infections with this. I think she’ll heal fast.”

“Thanks. We’ll be able to release her as soon as the carapace heals. It shouldn’t be more than a few months before she’s healthy again, but she’ll wear the scars from the boat strike forever,” Craig said.

Dr. Bryson left the turtle hospital when her work was finished. “Did you get her blood sample?” Emily asked Craig.

“Na, we’ll wait until she’s looking a bit better. We’ll be sure to tag her and take a sample before we release her. How’s the research coming?”

“Oh, it’s going well. I want to head up to Torres Strait next month to teach this one community about tagging and monitoring the nesting turtles. I’m just collecting and analyzing data until then,” Emily said.

“What kind of research are you doing?” Delaney asked.

“I’m looking at the affects of climate change on turtle nesting,” Emily explained. “The sex of turtles is largely determined by the temperature of the sand that incubates them. Warmer sand produces more females, so as the beaches become warmer, they produce more females than males, throwing off the sex ratio. Many nesting beaches are also being washed away because of more extreme storms and rising water levels. It’s going to be a long project; I only started it about a year ago.”

“That sounds really cool. And you also do tagging and monitoring at Torres Strait?”

“Yeah, I just do that when I have time to take a break from my project. It’s really interesting to talk to the Indigenous people there. They have this amazing cultural knowledge of the environment. There’s always a great exchange of scientific information for cultural information. They love helping out with the tagging.”

“That’s really great,” Delaney said.

“Delaney is helping us tag some turtles this week,” Craig interjected.

“Oh, really? How did you come by the turtle hospital?” Emily asked.

“I just wanted to do some volunteer work with turtles,” Delaney answered. “Just want to learn about them. I found out about Craig’s work online and contacted him.”

“Great,” Emily said. “You should give the turtle a name,” she told Delaney as Craig threw some lettuce in the tank for the turtle to eat.

“Yeah, don’t let Emily name her. She calls every turtle ‘Wayamba,’” Craig laughed.

“Oh, be quiet,” Emily smirked. “Wayamba was the first turtle I saw, and he made me interested in studying turtles.” She laughed.

“Let’s call her Chelonia, after her scientific name,” Delaney suggested.

“Chelonia it is,” Craig said, smiling.