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THE SEA TURTLE RESCUE: CHAPTER THREE

By Eric Douglas

Jayne and Marie are helping their parents move into their new home in Nag’s Head, North Carolina, when their mum, Ann, a veterinarian, gets a call to help an injured sea turtle brought in by boaters. Ann and the girls head to the nearby ocean research centre to see how they can help.

“Mom, how does a sea turtle get hurt?” Marie asked. “Was it a shark or something?”

“Sweetheart, there are a bunch of things that can hurt a sea turtle. It could be a shark, but I doubt that’s what hurt this turtle. There’s no way of knowing until the turtle gets here, but it was probably hurt by people,” her mother answered as she got her tools ready.

They were in the animal care section of the research centre. It looked like a large hospital examination room, but was designed for animals from the sea.

As a veterinarian, Ann would help out with sick animals, or, if they died unexpectedly, try to find out what killed them.

The room had all the same equipment you would find in an exam room for people, except most of it was bigger.

“You mean someone was mean to the turtle and hurt it, like kicking it?” Jayne asked, beginning to get upset.

She couldn’t understand why someone would be mean to an animal.

“No, sweetheart. Most of the time, people don’t mean to hurt the turtles, they just do it by accident,” Ann said.

The girls’ mother explained that sea turtles get hurt when they are hit by boat propellers.

Sea turtles must come up to the surface to breathe, and if boaters aren’t paying attention, the turtles can get run over.

Sometimes, they get caught in fishing line or nets and are trapped under water.

The line wraps around their bodies and cuts them or makes it hard for them to swim.

If they can’t get to the surface, the turtles drown. Other times, turtles will eat plastic shopping bags floating in the water.

Under water, plastic bags look just like jellyfish and sea turtles may swallow them, thinking the bags are food.

When they swallow the bag, their stomachs can get blocked and they get really sick.

“That’s so sad, Mom,” Marie said, nearly ready to cry. “Why can’t we stop people from being mean?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. I don’t know,” Ann said. “That’s one of the things your daddy is here to do. We can work with the people around here to help him.”

She turned when she saw someone walking into the office.

“Hi Sofia, come on in. Thanks for coming over. I didn’t think you would have to start this soon, but I’m glad you could.”

Jayne and Marie’s mom had just hired Sofia earlier in the day to be her veterinary assistant.

“No problem, Ann. I’m happy to help. I hope you don’t mind that I brought my son along — he didn’t have any place to go on such short notice,” Sofia said. “I thought he might be interested in what’s happening. Don’t worry, though, I told him he would have to stay out of the way.”

“Hi Javier,” both girls said, as the boy entered the room behind his mother.

“Hi Jayne. Hi Marie. Wow, this place is cool.” Javier looked around wide-eyed at the lab.

“You know each other?” the mothers asked at the same time, sounding like Jayne and Marie.

“Sorry, Mom. We told Dad, but we didn’t get to tell you yet. Things got all messed up when the call about the turtle came in.

“We made a couple friends today when we were riding our bikes,” Jayne explained, looking from her mother to Javier.

“He will be in my class at school,” Marie chimed in.

“Sofia, obviously I don’t mind having Javier here — my girls are here and it’s good for the kids to be included. It seems like they’re already friends, anyway,” Ann said, laughing.

“Now, if only Monique would show up, we’d all be here,” Jayne said, referring to the girl she’d met earlier in the day.

“Then it’s a good thing I’m here,” Monique said, walking through the door with her dad.

They were helping to pull in the cart with the turtle. Sea turtles can reach a thousand pounds or more and this one was several feet across and very heavy. Jayne and Marie’s dad was with them.

“Hello, Dr. Andrews,” Monique’s father said, talking to Ann. “I had hoped we would get a chance to meet before something like this came up.

“I’m James Stuart. I own the surf shop on the beach road, but I volunteer with the turtle watch group.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Stuart. I’m looking forward to working with you and the rest of the volunteers. Let’s get this turtle on the table and see how we can help it,” Ann said, all business when faced with a patient.

She organised the volunteers to move the injured turtle from the cart to the exam table.

The animal was large and heavy. Everyone in the room had to help lift or move the equipment around to get the job done.

Something to think about

1. Why do you think Marie’s mom said the turtle “was probably hurt by people”?

2. Why do sea animals eat plastic shopping bags floating in the water? What are the effects?

3. In what other ways can a sea turtle get hurt?

4. How did Jayne, Marie, Monique, Javier, Sofia, and Ann all come to know each other?

5. What do you think a “turtle watch group” would do?

NEXT WEEK: A loggerhead

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