After almost dying, long rehab in New Orleans, rare sea turtles are released on Grand Isle

Susan Blackwell hesitated before setting a little sea turtle she called Proteus in the rolling waves along Grand Isle.

"There was emotion involved because we've been with them so long," the Audubon Nature Institute volunteer said. "But it felt good because this is where they belong."

On Monday, the first batch of 28 exceptionally rare and endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles were released into the Gulf of Mexico after almost freezing to death in New England, undergoing a harrowing cross-country plane and van trip and spending nearly four months at Audubon's Coastal Wildlife Network rehabilitation center in Algiers.

Once their boxes were placed on the sandy beach, the dinner plate-sized turtles jolted to life. They began scraping at the sides and poking their noses out of the holes. When lifted out, their front flippers churned wildly.

"They're like, 'Let me back in!'" said Gabriella Harlamert, a network rehabilitation coordinator.

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The turtles were barely alive when they arrived in New Orleans on Thanksgiving. They were a few of the hundreds of sea turtles — Kemp's ridleys and other threatened species such as loggerheads and greens — that washed up on the beaches of Cape Cod, Mass. after a sudden bout of cold weather in late November. Most turtles had already headed south for warmer waters, but this batch was caught behind the long, hook-shaped peninsula and held there by high winds. Many of the rescued turtles were cold stunned and dying from hypothermia and pneumonia.

Kemp's ridleys are considered the world's most endangered sea turtle. Only 22,000 are estimated to be alive today due to a host of challenges, including habitat loss, over-hunting and frequent drownings in shrimp trawler nets.

While the turtle ranges along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts, it nests only on western Gulf beaches in Mexico and Texas, making the Gulf critical to the species' survival.

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Climate change is increasing the number of turtle strandings and cold-stunning events along the north Atlantic coast, said Kate Sampson, a turtle rescue coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"The waters from the Gulf of Maine, which extends to Cape Cod, are warming up faster than 99% of the other water bodies in the world," she said. "The turtles are coming farther north into that warmer water. That's not a problem until temperatures drop in the fall and they can't get away fast enough."

In the 1990s, turtle strandings on the Massachusetts coast ranged around 100 per year. "Now we're getting about 600 per year," Sampson said. "And this year, we were completely overrun."

The number of turtles rescued in November overwhelmed wildlife centers and aquariums in New England, so dozens were flown to rehab centers along the East Coast and Gulf Coast. Much of the flying was done by volunteers with Turtles Fly Too, a nonprofit group that provides air transport to endangered turtles.

Jessica Regnante and her husband, Robert Tingley, agreed to fly 30 turtles tucked in banana boxes to New Orleans. It didn't go as planned.

"First, we were delayed by wind, and then there was the thunderstorm we kept trying to fly around," Regnante said. "We were up there for so long."

While Tingley piloted the small plane, Regnante fussed over their towel-swaddled cargo. She kept an eye on the temperature gauge to ensure it didn't fall below 70 degrees and whispered encouragement to the turtles.

Low fuel forced Tingley to make an unplanned pit stop in Chattanooga, Tenn. Upon touching down, something struck the propeller.

"My husband heard a 'ping' and knew immediately what it meant," Regnante said. "He said 'Oh my gosh, we can't take off again.'"

With the plane grounded, frantic phone calls were made until someone reached the staff of the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga.

"It was the night before Thanksgiving, and everybody's getting their turkey ready," Sampson said. "But the aquarium staff — they jumped on it."

The turtles spent the night at the aquarium under the care of a veterinarian. On Thanksgiving morning, Regnante and Tingley, who live near Boston, rented a van and drove the turtles to Tuscaloosa, Ala., where Coastal Wildlife Network staff met them and rushed the turtles to New Orleans. Network staff spent their Thanksgiving administering emergency medical care to sick sea turtles.

They've received round-the-clock care ever since. Most of the turtles have grown strong enough to swim freely in the Audubon rehab center's 5 1/2 -foot-deep tank. Two turtles didn't recover.

"They were really compromised when they came in, but saving 28 out of 30 was pretty good," Harlamert said.

The center's staff and volunteers grew close to the turtles. They noticed personality traits, had favorites and gave them New Orleans-themed names such as Rex, Zulu, Muff-a-lotta and Pete Fountain.

Blackwell, the volunteer who released Proteus, had trouble letting go.

"They just came from being warm and fed everyday, and now it's off into the great unknown," she said. "I'm 72, and I've had to let two kids go. You'd think it'd get easier."