As long as I can remember, turtles have always been there. I do remember when the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle came into my life: Science Club, Wells Middle School, Houston, Texas, 1985. I already liked catching turtles in the local bayous of northwest Houston and had a couple of pet turtles at the time. That day a speaker came to talk to our club about Help Endangered Animals, Ridley Turtles (HEART). I knew I had to get involved, and I was able to convince my parents to take me to the “HEART Hotel” Head Start facility in Galveston.
Over the next few years, I became as regular a volunteer as a kid could be. I distributed “Wanted” posters around Galveston and helped in the lab with the baby turtles when I could. I even made a Sea Turtle Survival Game for other kids to play at the open house held around Valentine’s Day.
Sadly, after high school graduation, my life took a different turn and I enrolled in a military school in New Mexico. Life with sea turtles was a memory, at least for a while. The military took me around the world, but in my mind, turtles were still there. I still had that pet turtle I had when I first learned about sea turtles. He was my connection and bridge.
I made the decision to end my active-duty career and return to my roots. I went to college and got a degree in biology. This led me back to Texas with a job as a reptile zookeeper. I was just a short drive from the Padre Island National Seashore, and this brought me back to my old friend, the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle. The turtles I helped when I was young in Galveston were now grown up and starting to nest on the island. The seashore needed volunteers to help look for nesting turtles. As soon as I could, I signed up for training.
On my first patrol, I was teamed with an experienced technician who used to be a volunteer as well. Sadly, I was told my chances of seeing a turtle were slim. He had volunteered for five years without seeing one. I was a little disheartened, and six hours later, our patrol was ending with no sign of turtles. I turned back to the headquarters and paused. Fifty feet in front of my patrol buggy, I saw a piece of sand slide up the beach. It stopped and blinked. A nesting turtle! Needless to say, the experienced technician was dismayed that I found one on my first patrol!
Because it was so close to headquarters, the staff came to pick up the turtle and attach a satellite transmitter to track her after she laid her eggs. On that first patrol, I found a turtle, watched her nest, helped attach a transmitter, then released her back to the Gulf. Not a bad day!
That first season I found three other nesting turtles. Over the next six years, I returned to Padre Island every spring to help find nesting turtles, collect eggs, release hatchlings and, sadly, recover stranded turtles. The excitement of finding a nesting turtle is always tempered by the fact there is real science that needs to be done. I tried to get as many pictures as possible, but there is a lot that needs to be done in the less than 45 minutes you have with a turtle.
I was fortunate to be able to assist with attaching satellite transmitters to several turtles. I remember laying in the back of an SUV with a sea turtle and her newly affixed transmitter thinking that 12-year-old me would be pretty impressed. There I was with the most endangered species of sea turtle in the world and we were going to release her back into the ocean to learn her secrets!
I’ve been a volunteer for many wildlife projects over the years, but none as important to me and the survival of an entire species as the work the volunteers do with the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle.