Art Festival in Topsail Beach 10/17/2009

This morning we drove down to Topsail Beach for their annual arts and craft festival. We got there about 10:30 and walked around for about an hour or more and were quite impressed with a lot of the arts and crafts on display. It was a juried show so most of the items were things kind of out of the ordinary that you don't normally see at most festivals. One of the reasons we wanted to go to this festival, other than seeing the arts and crafts, was to visit the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Hospital which is normally closed this time of year but was going to be open for a few hours during the festival. The only problem was that at noon when it was scheduled to open there was a line a mile long to get in and the building is very small so we didn't get to make it in.....damn.
In North Carolina the nesting season is mid-May through August. The Loggerhead Sea Turtle comes ashore to nest 3 to 5 times during a nesting year. She deposits an average of 120 eggs per nest. The eggs will incubate in the sand for about 60 days.
After all the hatchlings have pipped out of their eggs, they emerge from the nest together and race to the sea. Weighing in at about two ounces, their first challenge on our beach is escaping the deadly grasp of the ghost crabs. Once in the water they must hide from both bird and fish predators, and the swim to sea weed rafts and the Sargasso Sea begins. It is a long swim to maturity. It is estimated that 1 in 1000 survives the first year, and as few as 1 in 5,000 - 10,000 survive to adulthood. No one has the answer to this. In 20 to 30 years the surviving hatchlings will reach adulthood. The females will return to their natal beaches to lay their eggs and the cycle begins again. They also fit the sea turtles that are rehabilitated and released with PTT transmitters. The PTT transmits messages to a polar orbiting satellite system called Argos. Argos currently features 6 satellites that offer global coverage. The satellites themselves are orbiting approximately 900 km above the earth's surface. They all pass over the poles with each orbit and they receive the messages from the transmitter (while they are on the horizon) and calculate a location estimate for the source of the transmissions. In this case, that "source" will be the sea turtles. With this system the turtles can be tracked anywhere he might go for an indefinite period of time. The tag being deployed is powered by a combination of primary batteries and solar cells. It could last for may years, as long as the turtle remains alive and the tag remains intact with the antenna attached. The unit will not only provide location estimates during the turtles travels but will also provide information about the depths of dives that the turtle undergoes. A few of the current patients of the hospital, species, injury or illness, admitted and outcome are:
OAK Cheonia mydas Hook , Entanglement, Gill Net 10-1-09 Current patient

PIER 2 Lepidochelys kempi Hook , Entanglement, Gill Net 10-1-09 Current patient

QUEST Cheonia mydas Fracture - Flipper 10-1-09 Current patient

HYDE Caretta caretta Hook, Entanglement, Gill Net 10-1-09 Current patient

WASHINGTON II Cheonia mydas Hook , Entanglement, Gill Net 9-12-09 Current patient

KUGAR Cheonia mydas Hook , Entanglement, Gill Net 9-6-09 Released 10-1-2009

YACHTIE Lepidochelys kempi Net Capture 7-28-09 Died 8-13-09

SQUIRT II Lepidochelys kempi Hook , Entanglement 6-30-09 Released 9-16-09

So you can see that there are some happy moments for the staff but also some sad ones to. We really wished we could have gone through the hospital and see the great work that they do and if your interested in the web site you can go to www.seaturtlehospital.org to read more.

Then it was back to the coach for the rest of the day. Well time to close for today so until next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick