As its flippers met sand and the ocean washed across its shell for the first time in six months, Earl Grey charged for home.
The state’s latest viral wildlife sensation, with more than 30 million views on Facebook and Instagram, had had enough of its celebrity. The 17-pound sea turtle had convalesced at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island since being found near death in the frigid Cape Cod waters last November. The 81-degree water that greeted it Thursday as it was returned to the sea was much more to its liking.
“Sea turtles all have distinct personalities and react to changes in their environment differently,” said Jaynie Gaskin, the center’s director. “That charge into the ocean is their way of telling us, ‘We’ve got it from here.’”
Earl Grey’s stay in Georgia met with public fascination. A juvenile with an unusual genetic makeup, the shelled reptile quickly drew comparisons to the beloved cartoon heroes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Only Earl Grey doesn’t wear a mask or carry ninja weapons, and technically, the turtle is not a mutant born from sewer ooze. Instead, Earl’s a rare but naturally occurring cross-breed, the offspring of a loggerhead father and a Kemp’s ridley mother. Alas, Earl’s not even a teenager — its estimated age is 7 to 10 years old and it won’t reach sexual maturity for another half-decade at least. Until then, it’s impossible even to determine Earl’s gender.
Credit: Jekyll Island Authority
Credit: Jekyll Island Authority
Earl and eight other turtles, all Kemp’s ridleys, are rescues from Massachusetts Bay, where winter weather last November left them “cold-stunned,” a form of hypothermia.
The lot was flown south to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center and gradually revived and nursed back to health. Earl Grey was the runt — about 13 inches long — and thought to be a loggerhead, but the turtle’s physical features cast doubts on that lineage.
Earl’s shell was round with raised ridges along the centerline, characteristic of a Kemp’s ridley. And the beak featured a slight hook at the tip, another Kemp’s ridley giveaway. The turtle center’s vets took a blood sample and had it genetically tested. The results revealed Earl Grey’s curious and extremely rare parentage.
Of the more than 1,000 sea turtles cared for at the center over its 19-year existence, Earl Grey is the first loggerhead-Kemp’s ridley hybrid, Gaskin said.
Credit: Jekyll Island Authority
Credit: Jekyll Island Authority
Earl Grey, known for being “spunky, curious, and always hungry” during the time at the turtle center, is likely to encounter many of its fellow loggerheads in the return to the wild. The Georgia shore is popular with the species, particularly this time of year when females frequent the barrier island beaches to nest and lay their eggs. Nearly 1,900 nests were reported last year and numbers have topped 4,000 as recently as 2022.
Already this month 739 nests have been recorded, according to the state Department of Natural Resources’ Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring System.
As for Kemp’s ridleys, those turtles are much rarer. Estimates are fewer than 9,000 females remain, and they build nests exclusively along the Gulf Coast, with the overwhelming majority coming ashore along three beaches near Rancho Nuevo, Mexico. Kemp’s ridleys nest en masse in events known as arribadas, where females come ashore at the same place at the same time to lay their eggs.
This practice makes them susceptible to poachers, who harvest unhatched eggs and even the nesting females. Mexico’s government put protections in place on the nesting beaches in the late-1960s, but scientists estimate nearly 90% of the population had already been eliminated.
Surviving Kemp’s ridleys migrate from the Gulf into the Atlantic Ocean and move between New England and the nesting grounds, as long as they stay ahead of the water temperatures. Turtles are cold-blooded and regulate their own body temperatures, and when water nears 60 degrees, they swim for warmer waters.
The shape of the Cape Cod landmass — it extends from Massachusetts like a flexed arm with a hooked fist at the tip — routinely traps turtles in the bay. Federal authorities and the New England Aquarium lead annual cold-stunning rescue efforts and ship saved turtles to rehab facilities such as the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for long-term care.
Eight of the nine cold-stunned turtles sent to Jekyll last November have returned to the sea, including two, Jasmine and Matcha, earlier in the week. The last of the turtles still under the center’s care, named Darjeeling, is still recovering from pneumonia but is steadily improving, Gaskin said.
“Releasing healthy turtles back to the wild,” Gaskin said, “is the pinnacle of the work we do.”
Credit: Jekyll Island Authority
Credit: Jekyll Island Authority
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
