A call has been put out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries and Turtles Fly Too for volunteer pilots to transport endangered sea turtles.
In an open letter, NOAA Fisheries’ Kate Sampson and Leslie Weinstein, president of Turtles Fly Too, note this year’s rescue efforts face even more challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In spite of recent challenges, the natural world continues to operate on its typical schedule, which means we are quickly approaching the Massachusetts cold stun sea turtle season. Unfortunately, COVID-related challenges have hit our response network partners hard, most of which are non-profit organizations,” the letter begins.
“They are planning for this upcoming winter season with fewer staff and volunteers, less funding, and strict social distancing protocols that will make response and rehabilitation extremely challenging. With this in mind, we are looking at a busier than normal season as we will likely have to transport turtles out of Massachusetts more often than prior years.”
“Local facilities are changing protocols to continue to provide life-saving care to cold-stunned sea turtles even with their limitations, but this will only be possible if they can reduce the number of turtles in their hospitals. That is where the amazing pilots of Turtles Fly Too play a critical role this year,” the letter continues.
Sea turtles will start to wash up on the shores of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, by November.
“We never know how many turtles to expect each year,” the letter notes. “In the last five years, the total has ranged from 300 to over 800, with the maximum ever documented in 2014 — over 1,200 cold-stunned turtles.”
The Response Network rescues these sea turtles from beaches and brings them to rehabilitation facilities in Massachusetts. Once there, the turtles are gradually warmed, started on treatment, and stabilized to await transport to a long-term care facility. The ultimate goal is to bring the turtles back to health and release them back into the wild to rejoin the reproductive population and contribute towards recovery of the endangered species.
Turtles are transported each year to long-term care facilities or even to release beaches along the Eastern or Gulf coasts. Reaching these locations by ground transport takes many hours or even days.
Turtles Fly Too, with the help of volunteer general aviation pilots, “significantly reduces the duration of these transports,” according to officials.
“Every moment counts for cold-stunned turtles. Reducing the amount of time these critical patients are out of water minimizes their stress during transport and, ultimately, increases their chances for success.”
“This year we expect to need more flights than prior years and there will likely be an added urgency to move quickly as facilities with limited staff fill up in Massachusetts,” the letter states. “For this reason, we are asking our pilots to commit in advance their availability during the 10 weeks of the cold stun season. Turtle fliers may select one or more weeks to be ‘on call’ for turtle rescue flights. Identifying available pilots ahead of time will hopefully reduce the time between when a need is identified and when we can get turtles off the ground.”
“If you fly a PC12, C-172, PA-28 or anything in between, we need you,” officials said.
Pilots interested in volunteering can sign up at TurtlesFlyToo.org. Pilots with questions can contact Sampson at [email protected].