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Oregon Coast Turtle and Octopus Find New Homes |
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Covering 180 miles of Oregon coast travel: Astoria, Seaside, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway, Garibaldi, Tillamook, Oceanside, Pacific City, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Newport, Waldport, Yachats & Florence.
03/03/08
Secrets of the Season |
Oregon Coast Turtle and Octopus Find New Homes
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| Seaside Aquarium's Keith Chandler sees the turtle off on Thursday |
Photos Tiffany Boothe, Seaside Aquarium
(Newport, Oregon) – Two different creatures on the Oregon coast are finding new homes this month.
Staff at the Seaside Aquarium gave away the body of a loggerhead turtle to the Hatfield Marine Science Center last week, in preparation for its role in the Hatfield’s Turtle Days event on March 15. Then next week, on March 11, the Hatfield will release its resident octopus back into the wild.
Tiffany Boothe of the Seaside Aquarium said members of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife picked up the body on Thursday and transported it to Newport.
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The four-foot-long loggerhead turtle washed ashore in Gearhart on Christmas Eve in 2007, still alive. Staff from the aquarium retrieved it, attempted to warm its body temperature and nurse it back to health. It died a day later, on Christmas Day.
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| The Seaside Aquarium attempts to warm up the loggerhead turtle's body temperature back in December |
The fact it had washed up at all was rather astounding. This is the first sea turtle to come ashore in this area in the last five years. “I talked to the Seattle Aquarium about it and they said they hadn’t found one in 20 years,” said aquarium manager Keith Chandler. “It’s that unusual.”
Boothe said the turtle wound up on shore after a particularly high surf event, but not necessarily because of that. “We get a lot of big waves before a storm,” she said. “He probably followed a warm water current that dissipated, and then got hypothermia. He then found his way up here.”
The turtle will be dissected for the public at the Hatfield event.
The sea turtle is four feet in length with a three-foot shell, weighing approximately 100 pounds. It was a male.
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While
the age of this turtle is unknown, their life expectancy can exceed 50
years.
Though loggerheads have been spotted as far north as Alaska
they only come ashore in this region when distressed.
Since its death, the loggerhead has been stored in a freezer, awaiting
word from any official agency that would be interested in it. Many agencies
like the Hatfield use these corpses for educational purposes, especially
in a case such as this, with a rare and endangered species.
Loggerheads inhabit all oceans, primarily temperate water. They are named after their relatively large heads, which support powerful jaws and enable them to feed on hard-shelled prey, such as crabs and mollusks. Loggerheads are the most abundant species of sea turtle found in U.S. coastal waters. Like all sea turtles the loggerhead are protected in the U.S. and most countries worldwide.
Loggerhead sea turtles differ from other sea turtles in having relatively large heads and reddish coloration.
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Turtles
exist off the Oregon coast in great numbers, but they almost never come
near the shore.
At the Hatfield, it’s time to say goodbye to Jimmie, their Giant Pacific octopus on March 11. Hatfield staff will release the little – or not so little – gal at 9:30 a.m. on that Tuesday.
“Giant Pacific octopuses have a finite life span of about a year,” said education specialist Bill Hanshumaker. “We seldom keep any octopus longer than nine months, and release them for reproduction.”
The giant pacific octopus dies shortly after reproducing – so this is one heck of a last hurrah.
“We will be transporting her to the Yaquina Bay South Jetty at 9:30 to take advantage of the low tide,” Hanshumaker said. “Join us in the Visitor Center at 9 to see us entice her into a transfer container, then follow us to the third finger of the jetty to say your final farewell.”
After subjecting the octopus tank to a through cleaning, the aquarists will be installing their new octopus, "Hodges," named in honor of a longtime Hatfield volunteer, Sara Hodges. Hatfield Marine Science Center, 2030 Marine Science Dr., Newport, Oregon. Admission by suggested donation. 541-867-0100. http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu
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