On May 25, 2002, six-year-old Michelle Caza spotted a green turtle on the surface while on a boating outing in Paradise Lakes with her family and best friend, seven-year-old Katie Witkowski. Drawing closer, they noticed it was severely injured and clearly struggling.

Easing himself into the sea, Mr. Caza gently passed the exhausted animal up to the girls, who wrapped it in a towel and comforted it. A call was made to Harbour Radio asking them to alert Aquarium staff to meet them at a specific point to receive the desperate turtle.

“We thought that was the last of it,” Mr. Caza recalls. “To us it was completely lifeless. I thought we were handing over a dead turtle, and I never gave it another thought until I read in Crittertalk (the Aquarium newsletter) that it was patched up, so then we took quite an interest in it.”

Meanwhile, on arrival at the Aquarium, staff rated the animal’s chances of survival as virtually nil.

Its carapace had been split open for almost its entire length, through which broken bones, and the lungs and their torn, protective sac were protruding. Definitely not a pretty sight.

The initial reaction was to euthanise the comatose animal, but when the Aquarium’s then-head aquarist (now Bermuda Strategy and Action Plan Coordinator and Bermuda Turtle Project Coordinator) Jennifer Gray received the call from her colleagues she said, “Don’t do anything until I see it, I’m coming down,” for she is as dedicated to saving marine life as any medical doctor is about his patients, and she has worked tirelessly to raise awareness and protection of turtles.

Was saving this severely wounded turtle viable?

Miss Gray decided it was.

“I have a very strong belief that every single turtle counts when considering the global survival of the species right now. All sea turtle species are endangered,” she says. “Because we take pride in our conservation laws and our protection of biodiversity, we make every effort we can to save any endangered species.”

Thus began what has been a five-year battle to rehabilitate and return ‘Split Pea’, as Miss Gray dubbed him, to the sea in accordance with the Aquarium’s standard premise when taking animals in.

Normally, animals destined for release back into the wild are never hand fed, except when administering medication in their food, but Split Pea was a special case. In order to survive, human handling was unavoidable, so there were concerns that his natural instincts might be compromised.

(Since the sex of green turtles is visibly indeterminate until they are between 20 and 50 years old, for the purposes of this article Split Pea will be considered a male).

The early days — as for many patients in intensive care — were touch and go. On the advice of an overseas veterinarian, Miss Gray successfully Superglued the torn sac surrounding the lungs. For months on end the open wound was cleaned daily, with Miss Gray delicately removing bits of shattered bone, carapace and rotting flesh piece by piece. The wound also had to be flushed with antiseptic solution and antibiotics injected. Each day the holding tank was scrubbed and the water kept in pristine condition to prevent infection.

It would be a very long time indeed before he was out of the woods, but Miss Gray and her colleagues kept the faith and took it one day at a time.

With the turtle’s carapace virtually split in half, something was needed to stabilise the two sides and prevent movement, otherwise the wound would not heal. Dentist Duncan Moran and his staff worked hard to devise a special fibreglass set of braces, which unfortunately proved unsuccessful.

Brian Lightbourn, now the principal curator, was luckier. He customised a strong, slightly flexible and waterproof carbon fibre brace which did the trick — a treatment that has now been adopted by other countries.

Because turtles have a way of “shutting down” when ill or wounded in order to heal, Split Pea did not eat initially; later he would thrive on a menu of lettuce, spinach, and grasses gathered from the sea.

Months passed with the patient clinging firmly to life, and slowly getting better — and bigger — all the time. However, the worry was that with so much necessary human contact, his instincts for ultimately surviving in the wild would be compromised.

A year later, he still had problems. Due to nerve damage from a suspected spinal cord injury, the turtle had lost the use of a front flipper, and one eyelid drooped. After two years of intensive physiotherapy the flipper was back in service, but the eyelid remained unchanged. He was also treated for arthritis in a shoulder.

To accommodate his growing size, the recovering turtle was transferred to various tanks, including the North Rock display, until finally he reached the point where he could be transferred to a tidal salt water pond on private property whose currents would not only cause him to swim harder and thus strengthen his muscles, but also encourage him to forage for some of the natural foods found in the open sea. Human contact was then kept to a minimum in preparation for the day of release, and Split Pea continued to progress.

While the rift in his carapace would never close up, Mother Nature ensured that the exposed skin became as tough as the outer shell. Many might question why some sort of man-made material was not used to fill the gap, but since the turtle would continue to grow and the filler would not, such a solution would be not only impractical but also possibly set up an infection, and that would never do.

Finally, the time to return the recovered turtle to his former habitat was drawing near, so plans were laid to return him to the area from whence he came.

For Miss Gray and head aquarist Patrick Talbot it would be an occasion of mixed feelings. On the one hand they were elated that Split Pea had made it, and on the other they were concerned that another speeding boater could clobber him.

Given the popularity of Paradise Lakes, the question arises: Why put the animal back in an area frequented by many water craft?

“No matter where we launched him, we know he would have made his way back to the exact same feeding ground and ‘sleeping house’. It’s called ‘site fidelity’ and is a fixed behaviour in sea turtles,” Miss Gray says.

And so it was that on June 1, the star patient, duly tagged and sporting four bright orange identification patches on its now-slightly humped carapace, was conveyed by boat to Paradise Lakes.

The farewell party included Mr. Caza, Michelle and Katie (now 11 and 12 respectively), Mr. Talbot and other Aquarium personnel.

“It was very thoughtful of the Aquarium to include us. The girls were in awe of the whole situation, and it was a very meaningful experience for them,” Mr. Caza says. “It was a nice closure.”

Throughout the journey Split Pea was laid on his back so he couldn’t go anywhere (turtles cannot turn over once on their backs), while Michelle and Katie helped to cover his eyes with their hands to calm him.

On site, he was gently lowered into the sea, where he quickly dove down toward the luscious sea grasses. Five minutes later came the final “salute”. Resurfacing briefly as if to say, “Thanks guys. I’m all right and I’m home”, he slipped beneath the surface, this time for good.

That, however, is not the end of the story. Miss Gray and her colleagues, including Aquarium curator and veterinarian Dr. Ian Walker, are now urging all boaters to please observe the signs regarding the five-knot, no wake speed limit, and to keep an eye out for turtles in all areas where seagrass beds are found.

Such areas are easily spotted from the surface as darker patches on an otherwise sandy bottom. Already this season, the Aquarium has received two dead turtles within a short time of each other.

“I would like to stress that when you are out on the water, have fun but at the same time please look out for signs of turtles,” Dr. Walker says. “It is not just about the environment but protecting the sea creatures in it as well which is important.”

Since green turtles are not natives, but animals for whom Bermuda’s waters are a temporary home for several decades during their juvenile/adolescent years, we have a reputation to uphold as a safe destination for all of our visitors to enjoy.

[bul] Aquarium staff are keen to keep track of Split Pea’s progress, so the public is asked to keep a look-out for him in the Paradise Lakes area. Please report sightings to 293-2727 ext. 131. Do not attempt to approach, feed, catch or remove him from the sea.

“It is illegal to capture or hold turtles, or pieces of turtles, dead or alive,” Mr. Talbot reminds.