Marine technology students from Cape Fear Community College will release seven rescued baby loggerhead sea turtles into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday afternoon as part of a week-long mission of the Cape Hatteras research vessel, which departed this morning from the campus docks.
The turtles were rescued and cared for by the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center after they washed up on Topsail Island. Olivia Gaitros, on staff at the center, said that the rescued turtles were weaker, not as developed as other turtles or had been injured by crabs and fish.
“The challenge with the sea turtles is that they are difficult to take care of. Evolutionarily, they have a lot of babies because many of them won’t make it out to the water,” Gaitros said.
Now that the turtles are in better health, they are ready to be released into the open ocean. The perfect conditions for their release are warm waters at 72°F that have plenty of seaweed to provide protection and food for the turtles that are still young, ranging between two weeks and two months old.
The Marine Technology Program at Cape Fear Community College gives students the opportunity to set out on the Cape Hatteras and get hands on experience in the field. The students will release the turtles this evening into the Gulf Stream while they head north toward Norfolk, Va.
This will be the first time that CFCC has partnered with the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, and Gaitros said that if the release goes well, the organization would like to partner with CFCC for the future.
“It would be a predictable and easy way to release the turtles, because the school goes out regularly with students on the Cape Hatteras,” Gaitros said.
For the marine technology students, the trip is more focused on technology and the interaction with turtles will end this evening. The students will run other technical procedures and release a small research boat which will allow them to track currents and winds.
