A juvenile loggerhead sea turtle that came to the Aquarium in September with an injury was rehabilitated by the veterinary staff and released back into the ocean in November. The sea turtle was named Char Char after a Pokemon character.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) officials asked if the Aquarium would provide housing and care for the injured sea turtle. Aquarium Veterinarian Dr. Lance Adams placed it in a behind-the-scenes holding tank. While the turtle appeared to be in good health, it had a dislocated right front flipper, apparently due to some previous injury. Dr. Adams determined that the flipper would never function and in fact impeded its ability to swim properly. He made the decision to amputate the flipper at the elbow joint. The turtle made a full recovery from the surgery and NMFS biologists determined an appropriate release date and location.
Char Char was equipped with a SPOT-5 satellite transmitter affixed to the shell via the ‘Seney and Mansfield’ technique, which used flexible neoprene as a middle layer to allow for rapid shell growth as expected in small juvenile turtles. Char Char was released on the east side of Catalina Island on November 15. In just a couple days, Char Char had traveled about 30 miles south to San Clemente Island. A map recording Char Char’s movements is available on seaturtle.org, a website providing satellite tag data from sea turtles and other animals around the world.
