Everything about Sea Turtles - Smarter Every Day 239

Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. I'm a mechanical and aerospace engineer. So when it comes to things like shock waves, or laminar flow, or snatch blocks, or aircraft, and things like that, I'm very comfortable learning things, because I know the lingo. And I can ask questions that make me seem like I know what I'm talking about, right? But I'm not a biologist. So today on Smarter Every Day, I want to show you this journey that I've been on. You see, we're going to learn about sea turtles. But we're going to learn about sea turtles in a really weird way.

I kind of struggled with how to do the intro to this video, because I did not plan this video. I feel like sea turtles kind of found me. So when you think about sea turtles, for example, they're very cute. Everyone likes sea turtles. They're kind of a quiet animal. They just do their thing. They don't pose a threat to humans. If anything, we're kind of in their way, right? But think about this. A sea turtle lives about as long as a human. And a sea turtle loves the beach. That's where they plant their eggs. And humans love the beach. So naturally, we are going to bump into sea turtles all the time. And that may or may not be a good thing for the sea turtle.

Well, the first time I ever interacted with a sea turtle in the wild was in Hawaii. [BABY BABBLING] I was on business with my wife and two daughters. And we were there. And every minute we had to spare, we would go swimming. That's what we'd love to do. In fact, my daughter and I, we love to see all the new types of fishes we've never seen before. And so we would always find any available water. We'd throw on some goggles, and we would go under and see what we could see.

Well, one day, we found this neat little outcropping of volcanic rock. So I got my goggles, and I jumped in. And the thing about it is the rocks were really rough on the bottom, and the surf was crashing in and out. So you would be moved with the water as it came in and out to shore. Well, I got out there and started swimming. And something really interesting happened. I saw this blob off in the distance. And suddenly, it just came up to me. It was a sea turtle. And this was the first time I had ever seen a sea turtle in the wild. I did not expect this. I was left with this sense of awe and wonder. It's like I felt like I had been in the presence of a great creature. And it almost left me, like, emotional. It was really strange.

And so this video was never meant to be made. It just kind of happened. Over the last year and a half, I have had several opportunities to interact with sea turtles on many different levels. And I totally didn't expect it. This is going to be less of me giving you the knowledge about sea turtles, because I don't have the knowledge. All these experts have the knowledge. What we're going to do today is we're going to go through all of these events. And I'm just going to share my experience with you and say, hey, this is something that happened. Because I firmly believe that the more you get to interact with a sea turtle in its natural environment, and the more you see it doing its thing, the more you'll come to love this animal, because I certainly have.

So here's what we're going to do. We're going to go through all this stuff. And then at the end here, I was actually asked if I wanted to go get a sea turtle, an endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle, and help transport it from Virginia Beach back to Decatur, Alabama. And so the last part of this video is going to be just that happening. Anyway, I'm very excited about this if you can't tell. Today, we're going to go get smarter every day that I got to interact with sea turtles. Let's go do it.

Last summer for vacation, the family decided we wanted to go learn Spanish. So we went to Costa Rica and attended a Spanish camp. This company called Explornatura organized these different educational trips for all the students in the evenings. My daughter wanted to go to the Verdiazul Sea Turtle Conservation Center. And when we got there, Danny sat us down for a full-on lecture on sea turtles. And it was awesome. He taught us about the seven different species and how you can tell different turtles by their tracks and whether they're symmetric or not. He also showed us that different turtles dig their nests at different depths in the sand.

After this, we learned how they lay eggs in a nest. And this is fascinating. Basically, the turtle goes out and digs a hole in the sand and then lays the eggs down in the bottom. And it will lightly pack sand in between there and the top and then put fluffy sand at the very top to camouflage the nest. When the little baby turtles start to pip and emerge from the eggs, the shell falls down to the bottom of the hole, and all the fluid drains out. This creates an air pocket up above the turtles, because that volume is displaced. And they all start to thrash at the same time.

There's something called socially facilitated ascent. They all thrash and thrash and thrash, and that makes the sand that's on top of them get transported down below them. And if they keep doing this enough, they'll all emerge together. The thing is, some of them stay behind down below. And over the course of one to three nights, additional groups will emerge. There are so many things I learned about sea turtle nests that are legitimately amazing. For example, whether you're a baby boy turtle or a baby girl turtle is a function of the temperature of your egg. That's real. I had to look that up, because that's amazing.

That means that where the egg is stacked in the sea turtle nest is going to determine the sex of each individual turtle, because there's going to be a temperature gradient across the nest. It's amazing. After we learned all this stuff, we went out to the beach where Zoe, a volunteer, had prepared a simulated nest for us. We had to follow the tracks from the turtle up to the beach, try to find where the nest was, and then we drew a grid on the sand and lightly pressed a stick into different areas. If the sand was firm, that's not where the nest was. If the stick went through, that's where the turtle dug the nest.

At that point, we dug down, and we retrieved the simulated eggs. If you ever, ever find a sea turtle nest in the wild, do not disturb it. The whole point of this exercise here at the conservation center is all these eggs are laid all over this particular beach in Costa Rica. And they're very difficult to defend from predators and even humans. So what they do is they go retrieve the eggs, and they move them to a hatchery. The whole point of the hatchery is to get the maximum number of baby turtles out into the water in hopes that they will live and the population will grow.

So Zoe, the volunteer that showed us how to find the eggs and all that good stuff, she walked us over to the hatchery. And she introduced me to the mother of turtles, or, said in Spanish, madre de tortugas.

Hello.

OK, this is Valerie.

VALERIE: Hola. You guys are a club.

Valerie is the lead biologist over the hatchery here. Si?

VALERIE: Si.

Si. Is it OK if I video?

VALERIE: Si, si.

OK. So Valerie, you're a researcher, right?

VALERIE: Yes, I'm a researcher.

DESTIN: In Espanol, [SPANISH]. Oh my goodness.

VALERIE: Si.

DESTIN: These are the babies?

VALERIE: Si.

DESTIN: Which species?

VALERIE: All these, ridleys.

DESTIN: You ever seen baby turtles?

No, I haven't.

DESTIN: Oh.

[SPANISH]?

VALERIE: Si, they are-- they was on the top. But they really need to wake up. [LAUGHS]

DESTIN: Si.

So some of them already hatch and go out three days ago. But there's some babies that are still on the egg, and that's the babies that I'm taking out right now, the last ones.

DESTIN: So naturally, those would die.

Naturally, maybe, yes. [INAUDIBLE] come to taking out or a raccoon.

DESTIN: But you're the mother turtle.

Yes. [LAUGHTER]

Yes.

DESTIN: [SPEAKING SPANISH]

Si, loco.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

DESTIN: Si. Perfecto.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

To wait.

DESTIN: To wait.

Uh-huh.

DESTIN: So you're going to wait before you release them?

Si, yes.

DESTIN: How long do you wait?

Until they wake up. And they have to be active.

DESTIN: But you're going to release them in the ocean today.

Yes, yes.

DESTIN: Wow. So this is a really interesting moment for me, because what's going on here is Valerie right here is-- she's caring for the turtles that just hatched. And she's trying to make sure that they survive and all that kind of stuff. But at the same time, anytime you have research and stuff, there's this very public-facing component that has to happen. But at the same time, she's patiently got a clipboard in her hand. And she's thinking about, you know, are these turtles going to survive? How long were they-- you know, incubation period for the turtles.

But this is a really neat moment, because she's doing some hardcore work. But the team is having to tap dance a little bit and show us, the public, why it's important and why this should be interesting and things like that. So this is just a larger metaphor for science communication or just environmental education in general, I think. So watch Valerie. Watch how much care and patience she has when she's doing the actual hard work. And again, this is the moment that the turtles hatch, right? This is one hour. And they've got dozens and dozens of hours of work that went into this one hour of, oh, we're about to release baby turtles. Very interesting.

Ouch. That's a lot of responsibility. [LAUGHS]

Look at them.

DESTIN: Yeah. Follow Valerie. Do everything she says.

VALERIE: [INAUDIBLE] We're going to see if they're going to wake up today.

DESTIN: And so you're walking to the beach where the nest was laid.

Yes, where the mother laid the eggs.

DESTIN: Es importante?

We try to do the same things that the turtle did. And the other thing is if we release always in the same place-- for example, in high season, every day, we release maybe thousand of turtles. And it's to make a place when it's going to be easy food for the other animals.

DESTIN: Predators.

Predators. That's why, also, we try to do the place that the mother laid the eggs.

DESTIN: And this leads us to one of the most intense things I saw at the Conservation Center there in Costa Rica. So much effort has gone into setting these hatchlings up for success. But ultimately, they have to prove that they're strong enough to make it. Valerie drew a literal line in the sand and let each of these turtles determine their own fate.

So you make them walk five meters to make sure they're strong enough to survive.

More than, uh-huh. Yes. Because people say that turtles used to come to the same place, OK? But it's to the same area.

DESTIN: Si.

And it's important to recognize many things, the magnetic file, many things that we don't really-- or I don't really know. But for me, it's more to be like the natural process, to be strong, and to recognize the place and to make it [inaudible]

DESTIN: How many do you think will survive here?

I don't know. About from 1,000 turtles.

DESTIN: In this-- [SPANISH]

I hope everybody. [LAUGHS]

DESTIN: We'll see. Hopefully so.

This was an incredibly intense moment knowing that the lifespan of each of these turtles could be over 50 years. But in order for that to start, they had to make it to the water. I have never wanted an animal to do something so badly in my entire life. Finally, after several minutes, this happened.

[WAVES CRASHING]

[CHATTER]

Watching this little sea turtle make it out there to the ocean made me feel all the things. And I suspect you feel the same way. Don't worry about the other ones. Valerie gave them an opportunity to make it out to the ocean later that night. I don't know how many made it, but this is the beginning. The turtles are now out in the ocean.

At this point, other scientists take over. And they research what's going on out there. I saw a video on the internet one time from a lady named Dr. Christine Figgener. She's known as the Sea Turtle Biologist. And it just made me feel other things. So I tracked her down and asked her if she'd be willing to talk to me over a Zoom call, and she was.

I am here with Dr. Christine Figgener, who is Sea Turtle Biologist on YouTube. Is that correct?

This is correct, yes.

I just want to talk to you about your research for a second if that's OK.

Yeah, no worries. I always love talking about sea turtles. [LAUGHS]

It's my understanding that you're in Costa Rica right now. You study sea turtles. Tell me a little bit about your research.

So I'm trying to do science that is actually having real-life applications. And it goes towards the protection of biodiversity. So I do a lot of movement ecology. That means I'm trying to figure out where turtles are going and where they're spending most of their time while they're in the water. I'm also doing a lot about diet, so I'm interested in what kind of diet sources they mainly use. And all of that, I'm doing because I want to have the best data available to actually know what is valuable to protect.

What have you discovered through your research? What is the thing that you've learned about turtles that you're most excited about?

Usually, most sea turtle species actually have very distinct breeding grounds and then very distinct foraging, so feeding grounds. And they just kind of move between those areas back and forth. Sometimes, of course, there's years in between, because females especially skip about one to two years in between each of their nesting seasons. But that particular species that I've been studying-- that is, the olive ridley turtle-- it's the smallest of all sea turtles. They are literally nomadic.

So they have no actual distinct area. So because my whole intent was, OK, I'm going to figure out where they are feeding so we can think about how we can best protect that defined area, but it happened or turned out that they're using the entire Eastern Pacific Ocean. They are really far traveling. And even the population that just nests in Costa Rica doesn't have just one area. So they go to the north. They go to the south. They go out into the western part of the ocean.

So you study the Pacific Ocean.

That was for the Pacific, right, for my PhD. Right now, I'm actually on the Caribbean. That's where my conservation and research project nowadays is located. And we're studying hawksbill turtles, one of the two most endangered species. And the big problem we have is that for centuries, hawksbills have been used to create objects made from tortoiseshell. So I think you might know tortoiseshell for glasses and jewelry. And almost every single button in Europe in the past centuries that were made from tortoiseshell were made from hawksbill. So all of those seafaring nations brought hawksbills in huge quantities back to Europe. And that has absolutely diminished the populations in the entire world.

So talking to Dr. Figgener showed me a lot of things that were right in front of me the whole time that I never realized. For example, if you go to a store and you look at glasses, you'll see this really interesting pattern known as tortoiseshell. Now, I always thought that was just kind of, you know, something like a cheetah print or something like that. That's just the pattern name. Turns out, back in the day, that was literally made by hawksbill turtle shell. And I didn't know this. In fact, today, there is a traditional Japanese craft called Edo Bekko. But there's things like hairpins and just brooches and things like that that are made out of tortoiseshell. And I can't deny that it's absolutely beautiful.

And I went down the Google rabbit hole, and I started finding that traditional craftsmen would take the tortoiseshell. And they would heat it up, and they would press it under heat. And it has the ability to retain that shape-- interestingly, much like plastic. So there are material properties of a tortoise shell that are unique. Obviously, this is taking a material from an endangered species, and this is a negative thing to do, which is why, in 1994, Japan actually outlawed the import of hawksbill turtle shell. Unfortunately, right now, people still do it illegally. Tortoise shells and sea turtle shells are illegally traded and shipped mainly to-- you guessed it-- China, where it's sold illegally.

If you're ever in a market in a different country and you come across a product that looks like this really pretty pattern, this tortoiseshell pattern, it might actually be from a hawksbill turtle. So think twice about giving your money to something like that, because you could be unwittingly supporting the illegal trade of tortoiseshell and indirectly funding the killing of a turtle.

I did not know that. You're trying to figure out where these things live, what types of things affect their mating habits, their ability to reproduce.

And we are trying right now to see how we can best recover those populations. So again, we need to figure out where do they actually live. So not just the adults, because we know where the females are nesting. But where do we have the developing stages, as well? So where are the juveniles, the subadults? Because that is always the status that we don't know that much about, because it's so easy to get nesting females, right? Because they're on the beach. You have access to them. But finding all the other stages in the open ocean is super difficult. But the area where I live, we have a huge coral reef. And we have hawksbills feeding there, and we actually have juvenile hawksbills and subadults feeding there.

So what I do is I place little satellite transmitters on them to see what areas exactly they're using, what is their preferred kind of range of movement. And then I'm also interested in, once they grow to a certain size, where do they head next? Because the females that are actually nesting on the beaches that are right adjacent to those areas, they are not feeding there. So once they're done nesting, they are actually moving to Nicaragua and other places.

What would you say to a young person that wants to become a marine biologist like you? What advice would you give?

Become comfortable with being uncomfortable. [LAUGHS]

Yeah?

Well, I mean, it always sounds so romantic. I mean, I love my job. Don't get me wrong. But I'm totally an outdoor person. And I have met so many people that love the idea of being a sea turtle biologist, but they hate their guts in the field. They love talking over it, be about like, oh, yeah, I study sea turtles. But when you see them in the field, they're just miserable. So I think unless you're really passionate about all of that, I don't think this is it for you. I mean, and I don't think it's bad. There are a lot of people that come to my projects. They do one season. And they say, that wasn't a great experience. I don't think I need that again.

Be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That's good.

Thank you. Yeah.

You filmed probably the most famous turtle video on the entire internet. And I've seen this everywhere. I did some research, and I learned that you were the person that filmed this video. I first saw this video on the internet a long time ago. And it created a very emotional response for me. I saw these people on the boat, and they pulled a straw out of the sea turtle's nose. Am I allowed to show a clip of this video on Smarter Every Day here? Is that OK?

Oh, absolutely. Yes, please.

Could you just explain what happened in this video briefly?

We were on a boat at that moment where we've been sampling turtles the entire day already. I did some of my stable isotope analysis stuff. And I had also a colleague on the boat that was interested in epibionts, so the little critters that live on the turtle. And that particular turtle had not only, you know, barnacles growing all over its shell, but it had something funny encrusted in its nose, which we thought it might be an encrusted barnacle or some kind of worm. But then when we started pulling on it and I was actually filming him while he was pulling on it, it became longer and longer. And it started having black stripes. And it became less and less like something that I would have said is of biological origin.

So that was the moment that we decided, OK, you know what? Before we start or continue pulling, let's just cut off a piece of that and then figure out what it is. So we did that. And my local assistant actually picked it up, bit on it, and said, it's plastic. And I had already in my mind, thinking, like, yeah, that object looks really familiar. I mean, it almost looks like a straw. But I remember that I couldn't really believe it. I was like, oh, yeah, right, a straw in a turtle's nose? But that was really the moment I was like, oh, man, that really is a straw. It's a plastic straw that is stuck in that turtle's nose.

And yeah, from that moment onwards, we were just like, OK, we can't leave it in the turtle. And we removed it entirely. We kind of looked at him, if he is otherwise OK. We put some iodine into the nostrils. And then we released him, and he was just happy to get away and out into the open ocean again.

And it's my understanding that you have documented another encounter with this turtle. So you know that it's OK.

Yeah. Unfortunately, we didn't get video of it. We found him, actually, again about two years later. One of my local assistants was out spear fishing, and he saw a male mating with another female and saw that this male had tags. And he sent me the tag numbers, and it happened to be exactly that male. So he was enjoying his life. [LAUGHS]

That's amazing. So this is a moment where you-- well, there's many stories here. There's the whole straw part. And I follow you on Twitter. I know that you hate straws. However, this is a really interesting thing. So you were able to-- I'm not going to say heal, but rehabilitate this turtle by taking the man-made object out of the turtle's body and returning it to the wild. And it's a success story, right?

He still lived two years after, so I hope it's a success. And he was probably able to make new babies. So that's also a success, I guess.

I'm about to do something interesting. I have learned about a turtle. It's a Kemp's ridley. Am I saying that correctly? Is that a correct--

Yes, a Kemp's ridley, yes.

Can you tell me about a Kemp's ridley turtle? What are they?

So Kemp's ridleys are quite interesting. They have, for the longest time, been the most endangered sea turtles, because their numbers had just been plummeting in the '70s and '80s because of fishing especially. And there's quite a success story behind Kemp's ridleys, because there was a bi-national project that started a head-start program. So they collected every single nest that was laid on the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico, translated them into facilities to incubate them, completely protected and very controlled. Then they released them for a little while on the beach, because we know already that sea turtles return to the beaches that they've been born on. And they imprint in the time likely where they make their way from the nest to the water and when they start swimming.

So we didn't want to take away this cue from them. So they released them. And then there were people in the waterlines that were catching out those turtles again. And then those turtles were placed into pools and actually grown to that size that I've been talking about when they usually travel out into the open ocean up until they have a certain size, and then they recruit back to coastal areas. And then they were released. And with that head-start program, which, to be quite honest, head-starting is always a very much debated topic, because a lot of stuff can go wrong-- but for that particular species, it was really the saving grace. So it made sure that we now have numbers that are actually able to sustain a population again.

Dr. Figgener, thank you so much for helping us understand this stuff a little bit better. It's my understanding that we're going to get to participate in retrieving the sea turtle Kale, who's been injured. And we're going to travel from there all the way back to the museum, where Kale will find his permanent home.

When you say "museum," it sounds as if it's going to be a stuffed turtle.

[LAUGHS] It's not. Kale has an aquarium. You need to come to Decatur.

But maybe you should specify that, like the aquarium of the museum or something, because it really sounds like she will have her forever home in this beautiful museum.

No, not at all. Kale is going to the Cook Museum. They have a huge aquarium. Christine, you have to--

I don't know that.

You have to come. OK, so let me specify. Kale is going to have a whole aquarium where he gets to hang out. And they've got coral in there and tropical fish. You should come visit and hang out. It's a really cool museum.

I should, definitely.

She's pretty cool, right? So big thanks to Dr. Figgener for talking to us from Costa Rica, where she's doing sea turtle research. If you'd like to connect with her, she's on YouTube at the Sea Turtle Biologist. Also, she's on this new app called Milkywire. She said she prefers if people connect to her that way. You can support her research directly through this app. So I'll leave the link down in the video description for that.

All right. Before we go to the Cook Museum of Natural Science and meet my buddy Brian Cook, what I'd like to do is show you a sea turtle nest that I found myself here in Alabama. Sea turtles make nests all over the ocean. Down here in the Gulf of Mexico, I'm in Mobile Bay. You can see a beautiful sunset here. Check it out.

It's a sea turtle nest.

Who knows? That sea turtle might make it all the way up to the east side of the United States. That could be a Kemp's ridley for all we know. So I'm learning all this stuff about sea turtles. And a sea turtle adoption/rescue just falls in my lap. And I kind of want to explain it to you, because it's a really fun story.

Way back in 1928, a guy named John Cook started a company called North Alabama Termite Company, which he handed off to his son, also named John Cook. Now, this John Cook was a master at marketing. He changed the name of the company to Cook's Pest Control. And if you live in the southeast United States, you have heard the jingle to this company.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

SINGER: (SINGING) Lookie, lookie, lookie, here comes Cookie. Cook's Pest Control.

If you're from the southeast, you've heard that. I know you have. Anyway, so here's the deal. John Cook decides he needs to educate his employees about the pests they're trying to control. So he starts this huge insect collection. And people from all over are so interested in it, they want to come see it. In fact, school groups start coming to the museum on field trips. And it becomes the Cook's Natural Science Museum. Fast forward two generations, my buddy Brian enters the business. They're looking around. They see the old museum. They're like, this thing's getting old. We should either upgrade it or tear it down. And they create the Cook Museum of Natural Science.

The whole point of the museum is to show you that life is amazing by allowing you to engage with the natural world. Butterflies, bees, honeypot ants, birds, caves, minerals, space, aquariums. It's awesome. It's in my hometown. You totally have to come check it out. So one day, I'm talking to Brian. And he's like, we might have an opportunity to get an endangered sea turtle for the museum. And I pretty much invited myself on the trip.

OK, so this is the Cook Museum of Natural Science. And this is my buddy, Brian Cook.

Hey.

DESTIN: So Brian, how long have you guys been working on the museum here? It's been, what, five years?

Yeah, well, it's actually been 8 and 1/2 years from the decision to expand, relocate, and create a whole new non-profit museum.

DESTIN: So you guys designed and built an aquarium just hoping you would get a sea turtle before it was ever really a thing, right?

Yeah, that was part of the idea was to house an endangered sea turtle. Early on in the very beginning, originally, it started out as small, self-contained aquariums. And then the vision expanded to a 15,000-gallon saltwater aquarium and the idea of doing something substantial and meaningful.

DESTIN: So what's it mean to have an endangered sea turtle in Decatur, Alabama? Pretty awesome?

Yeah, it's a big deal.

DESTIN: Are you guys pumped?

BRIAN COOK: Yeah, we're super excited.

OK. Let's go get a turtle. Virginia Beach. Let's do it.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

OK, so we're 10 hours into a 12-hour drive to Virginia Beach. My question is, how are we going to get a sea turtle 12 hours back to Decatur, Alabama, in a vehicle? The rumor is I'm going to get to be in the vehicle with the turtle all the way back. So I'm excited to find out what we do. Do we need water? I have no idea. Let's go check it out.

So we wanted to know the full history of the turtle we're going to take back to the Cook Museum in Decatur. So we decided to go see the exact spot where the turtle was caught. The problem is, when we contacted local authorities to ask about it, they said that we couldn't go out onto the pier. It's called the James T. Wilson Pier. The locals know it as the Buckroe Pier. The reason you can't go out there is during a storm, not too long after the turtle was caught, a barge got loose and slammed into the pier and made a part of it collapse. So the only way we can see where the turtle was caught is if we were to fly out over the pier, which is why I'm really excited that this episode of Smarter Every Day is sponsored by DJI.

This is the first time I've ever flown a drone myself for a video in Smarter Every Day. This is the DJI Mavic Mini, an ultra-light drone that's only 249 grams. This is the first time I've ever flown this thing. And I was nervous, because we were flying out over the water to see the pier where this turtle was caught.

There it is. You can see where the barge hit it.

Usually, this thing would be filled with people fishing. And sometimes turtles will go after their bait or the fish they've caught. It's awesome. So yeah, there you have it. This thing is amazingly easy to operate. The software is fantastic. If you would like to get one of these, it's called the DJI Mavic Mini. Or do what I recommend. You can get the DJI Mavic Mini Fly More Combo, which comes with three batteries. Each battery gets you up to 30 minutes of flight time, which is insane. So with the Fly More Combo, you can have up to 90 minutes of flight time. And you can shoot fantastic footage. So if you would like to do that, go use the link in the video description and the promo code that's there. And you can get a discount on this thing. You're going to love it.

Ever since I started using this thing, I keep it in my truck with me. And I have explored countless things from the air that I never would have thought about before, but it's kind of opened up a whole new world of possibilities to me. Please consider going to the DJI website by using the link in the video description and use the promo code. Smarter Every Day will get credit for you using that link.

Anyway, that's awesome. Thank you to DJI for sponsoring Smarter Every Day, and thank you for helping us get awesome footage of this pier.

The following morning, I went downstairs in the hotel to meet the Cook Museum personnel who drove to Virginia to pick up the turtle. This is happening in the middle of a pandemic, so there's an ongoing discussion about masks. So is Kale going back in this van?

He will be.

Yes.

In this van?

Yes.

So this was a fun little moment where we realize we're going to be in the same vehicle for 12 hours together. And yeah, I guess we're family now. So we decided that we were going to quarantine together at this point. And that's why you're going to see various levels of mask usage in this video.

Also, just a reminder, this video's about sea turtles.

We arrived at the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, and the Cook Museum team was greeted by Erin.

OK, this is Erin. Erin, what do you do here?

Hi, I am the husbandry and nesting manager as part of the Stranding Response Program.

DESTIN: Stranding response meaning a turtle has been captured by a human or injured or something like that?

Wide range of things. We'll actually respond to both sea turtles and marine mammals, any sick, injured, out of habitat, incidentally captured animal, live and dead. We will respond to it in the state. We'll also assist with neighboring states, as well.

DESTIN: That's amazing. So I don't know if you can see this, but I'm in a huge facility. And there's a lot of water being pumped around, so it's kind of noisy. That's a fighter jet I hear overhead.

We do. We are right at the end of Oceana's runway. So we get to hear the sound of freedom often. [LAUGHS]

DESTIN: Sound of freedom, that sounds good.

Erin walked the team around and showed everybody what went down at the Stranding Center. By the way, the team consists of Dr. Keller, who's got expertise in transporting exotic animals. We also have the director of operations at the Cook Museum, Eric Miller, and Cassie and Kelly, who are going to be taking care of the turtle once it gets back to the Cook Museum.

It was fascinating to see how much effort goes into rehabilitating an injured animal. For example, Erin introduced us to Seaweed, who'd been hit by a boat propeller. They'd been nursing it back to health for over a year, and she explained that turtles like to heal slowly. Seaweed will eventually be released back into the wild, but it was time to meet the turtle that'll be traveling back with us to Alabama.

This is the first moment the Cook Museum staff got to meet this creature that they'll be responsible for for decades.

He does get pretty bitey. So whenever he is out, it's best to watch his mouth. But other than that, he's a very easy to handle turtle. He goes out. I don't know how familiar you guys were with the Kemp's ridley stress pose, where they just kind of sit like Superman. He does that pretty much whenever he's pulled.

DESTIN: Erin had spent so much time learning about every little need that Kale had. And she was trying to do a data download and give all that information to Cassie and Kelly right there in the moment.

--of a lot of ridleys we see when they get stressed. So he gets that pink flush.

OK.

So he does that very quickly, but it also goes away very quickly.

DESTIN: After the initial meeting, a more detailed data download was necessary, because Kale is what's called a non-releasable case. Kale has a wound on the throat that didn't heal properly. And Erin and Chelsea removed Kale from the tank here, and they're going to do an inspection and show Dr. Keller everything about Kale's wound. I'm going to let this part of the video just play so you can experience learning all this stuff just like we did.

ERIN: And if someone wouldn't mind taking that tunnel down, just setting it on the floor for me.

There we go. Awesome. Thank you, guys.

All right. Get a view of his fistula. You can see from the outside.

Yeah.

So does it communicate all the way through to the--

It does.

--esophagus?

Yep.

DESTIN: Kale has what's called a fistula, which is an abnormal connection between two different body parts. In this particular case, it's a connection from the outside of the body all the way into the esophagus.

That what you need to see, Doc?

Yep.

OK.

OK.

So I was just going to show one of the things. This is just saline. We've been flushing it. So you guys might be able to kind of see how it goes up.

Some of it will come out, and then when I drop his head, some more is going to come out of his mouth.

How often are you doing that, Erin?

We were doing it weekly. I think we're doing it at least every other week. But our vet will try and do it when she has him out.

DESTIN: So what did you see there?

Well, basically, what she's referring to is where the initial injury was. And as it penetrates down through and didn't completely heal, it walled off that fistula, that draining tract between the outside air and his esophagus, right? Am I summarizing that properly, Erin?

Yeah.

And so that's the only thing that is of some concern is that if he were in a release situation out in the wild, he could develop some sort of complication associated with that.

DESTIN: And so is that the reason Kale can't be released?

Mm-hmm.

DESTIN: Can you explain that just briefly? What could happen if Kale were released?

It's just one of those, in good faith, we cannot say that he won't develop some kind of abscess from debris or something getting stuck in that, therefore future hindering feeding and therefore maybe leading to a prolonged, slow death that we don't want to see. So just because we haven't monitored this long enough, we don't know what his future looks like with that track still there.

DESTIN: And so that's why you would look for a long-term facility like the Cook Museum?

Yep, exactly.

DESTIN: Got it. So this is a normal thing for you guys. You do this sort of thing all the time?

Actually, we've placed two turtles since I've been here. So it's not too normal. But it's good to know that there are great partners out there for when we do have animals that we can't, in good faith, release back to the wild.

DESTIN: So this is a big deal.

It is, yeah.

DESTIN: That's awesome.

Here we go.

Yep.

So a lot of times, when we're doing the cleaning, this is how we'll hold him. And you can get a really good view here and usually just having somebody support his head. But sometimes she would go in there and debride some of that fibrous material out, as well.

DESTIN: This is the underlying issue right here. So it's a fistula?

ERIN: Mm-hmm.

And who did the surgery?

This was Dr. McNaughton with our team. It was a hook removal surgery. And then we did, actually, three surgical repairs in attempt to close it, all of which failed.

[INAUDIBLE]

Thank you.

DESTIN: Do you know how old he is?

Do not know how old he is. He's a young juvenile. We typically give age classes, because the only way to really know how old they are is to cut their humeral bone in half. I don't want to do that to him. [LAUGHS]

DESTIN: Yeah. But you do know he's a male.

We actually don't know. I use "he" and "she" interchangeably. It depends on the day. So the only way to tell is if they're at a certain age class, you can do an ultrasound. But because he's younger, we probably wouldn't even see that on ultrasound. You can also do testosterone testing to measure those levels. But externally, it's harder to tell when they're--

DESTIN: Because their genitalia, it's all internal genitalia?

When they're full-grown adult, they'll have an elongated tail. You can also tell where the vent placement on the tail is if it's male or female. But again, because he or she is younger, it's harder to tell externally.

So this is a pretty big moment. Erin is about to tag Kale. Is that the correct terminology?

Yeah.

DESTIN: OK. And can you just explain what's about to happen?

Yep. So we're going to give him a pit tag. It's similar to a dog or cat microchip. It's going to go right into the muscle of his left tricep. It looks like a fairly large gauge needle, but they might react a little bit. But it doesn't cause that much discomfort for them. They often go back to using that flipper the second we put them back in the water. And it'll allow anybody with a scanner similar to one of these to just pass it over and get his unique identification number.

DESTIN: And this is a standard thing in marine biology?

ERIN: Yeah, we will do it with any turtle that leaves our facility.

DESTIN: Got it.

ERIN: We'll actually also do external flipper tags, as well, for a quick ID in the wild.

DESTIN: So does it have a number or--

It does. Yup, so you will scan it. You can actually see here the unique number associated with this one. And if I were to scan the thing, the tag will come up. So that would happen once it was in his flipper, as well.

DESTIN: So that would come up right there.

ERIN: Mm-hmm.

DESTIN: Awesome.

ERIN: And then you can match it back to the unique number that--

DESTIN: So there's a database somewhere.

There is, yeah.

OK, this is Chelsea. And it's my understanding that you named Kale.

I did. So I was really excited about our veggie naming theme. And kale is my favorite vegetable, and I always make sure that everybody eats their kale. So that is how Kale got his name.

DESTIN: So what do you mean the veggie naming theme?

So all of our hooked turtles for 2019 were named after veggies. We try to keep things in a theme so we can understand their initial cause of strand, so 2019 was vegetables for our hooked turtles.

DESTIN: I'm noticing on the wall behind you all these turtles that have been named. You have, like-- it looks like 2014, 2015-- no, 2014 seems to be superheroes or--

Yeah, superheroes and villains. We've had some fun naming themes. We've had flowers. It just makes things fun a little bit for us-- it can be a really stressful time when we've got a lot of patients-- and one thing that we get to personalize with the turtles.

DESTIN: It sounds like the Cook Museum kind of won out with Kale, because they could have a turtle named Broccoli. They were very close to that.

Yeah. [LAUGHS]

DESTIN: Thank you for all you do, Chelsea.

Absolutely. You're welcome.

ERIN: So that's typical Kale back in the water. He'll hold that for a little bit and then all of a sudden snap out of it and swim off. Sometimes if you want him to get out of it a little sooner, you just tickle the rear flippers back here. There you go. It's a good motivation to start swimming.

So Kale was hooked at one of our local fishing piers, I believe, in May of 2019. It was a rather large hook fairly far down in the esophagus. So we attempted removal just going through the oral cavity, and no luck. We attempted with an endoscope, no luck. So we ended up having to do an esophagostomy, so an incision through the esophagus to be able to remove that hook.

DESTIN: Wow. That's amazing. That looks like it hurt.

So otherwise, he's an incredibly healthy turtle with the exception of that straw, essentially, in his neck, unfortunately.

DESTIN: So after Kale was safely back in his tank, we got a plan together on how we were going to leave out in the morning. Immediately after getting back to the hotel, though, we got a phone call saying that a fisherman nearby had hooked a turtle. Virginia has a really cool program called the Pier Partner Program.

When I got to the pier, I went out and tried to find the fisherman immediately. He explained that he accidentally hooked a turtle. He actually called the phone number and said, hey, I've got a problem here. And that's when the pier manager helped him bring the turtle up to the pier with a net so that it wouldn't hurt the turtle.

Aw. My name's Destin, man.

Paul.

DESTIN: So Paul, how did they know to call you? When the phone number rings, is that you?

Well, when they call the number, the Stranding Response team, they get the call. And my boss calls me. And then I'm usually the one here. And she'll say, hey, you know, there's a turtle down there. Could you go get the turtle?

I mean, we got a procedure and everything of how we get the turtle.

DESTIN: What's up, Chelsea?

Hey again. Long time no see.

DESTIN: Hello. [LAUGHTER]

I was really excited that we got there early enough to see this, because it was a very encouraging thing to me. Every single human involved in this whole process loves these animals, and they want them to survive.

I mean, just look at this. You have people passing by on the street stopping to make sure this animal's OK. You have fishermen, government officials. You have us from Alabama. Everyone's rooting for this turtle, and they are united in their efforts to try to save it.

Here to take up the turtle at 5:30 AM. Here we go.

You've done this before, right?

Yeah, I've done it before. I've never done it with a turtle this small, so it's a little bit different for me. But basically, what we're planning to do this morning is sort of prepare the animal for the trip. They like to put Vaseline and some lubricants on there to keep the skin from drying. In addition, they're going to run some fluids on him so that he's prepared for the long trip and doesn't have to worry about the ingestion of water.

Going to put fluids in him.

We're putting fluids? Good.

Fluids? Yes.

Didn't know this was happening.

Why are you cleaning right there?

ERIN: So that's where he's going to get his fluids. They kind of get them in their shoulder region.

He's going to give it subcutaneously.

OK, that's not something I was expecting. Interesting. So how much fluid are you putting in?

He's going to get about 140 mils.

DESTIN: Erin got Kale's last measurements before leaving the facility and also applied eye and skin lubricant. Dr. McNaughton, who performed Kale's surgeries, was on hand to give the history to Dr. Keller and also provide the background on all the medical treatment that she's used up to this point.

So Dr. McNaughton, how do you feel about this? Is this an interesting moment?

I'm really excited. And Kale's, uh-- we've been a long road with Kale, but we're really excited that this turtle is going to have a forever home and be able to teach so many people about his species and about the things like the experiences he went through. Interactions with fisheries is common, so to be able to tell this story and share it with all the guests would be wonderful.

DESTIN: Is that for us or for Kale? [LAUGHTER]

It's a snack on the ride home.

DESTIN: So is this the X-ray?

Yeah. So this is one of his initial radiographs. And I say "his," but of course, we don't know if it's a male or a female. And you can see the large hook that he has and also the positioning of it.

So a turtle has a plate. And the top is called-- it starts with a C--

Carapace.

And the bottom is called the--

Plastron.

DESTIN: Plastron. So the plastron was in the way for everything you were doing.

Yes. So that's part of what we look at with the positioning of the hook. So you can see the outline of where the carapace sits on this animal. And you can see the outline of the carapace here. But there is quite a bit of movement that we're able to have within the esophagus. It's pretty stretchy. So I can go through the mouth and, if we have a line, pull up the esophagus a little bit to get access to this hook.

However, once we get past this portion, it's very hard to get access from the oral approach to hooks in this spot. And also, the plastron is sitting right there. So I can't just go straight in to get it. I have to make an incision here on the neck and then go in and get the hook that way. So I still had to sort of go fishing [LAUGHS] for the hook past where I could see it from my incision line.

So there was something about probably what was happening with the amount of trauma or inflammation in that tissue that made it harder for Kale to heal appropriately.

DESTIN: In general, do you have a negative feeling towards people who fish?

No, not at all. Because we could never actually do this without them. It really starts with them calling us to start with and talking to the pier manager and saying, hey, I've accidentally hooked a turtle. What do I need to do?

So this whole program starts with them. And so we couldn't do that without them. We love people being out there and enjoying the oceans and loving it just as much as we do. And then we work together to make sure that the turtles that accidentally get hooked are taken care of appropriately.

DESTIN: So they're big advocates for the animals themselves.

Definitely, yes. It starts with them for sure.

All right.

All right, that's it. Symbolic passing of the turtle. [LAUGHTER]

OK. 12 hours from now, huh?

I have to admit, this is the first time I've ever helped moisten a turtle in the drive-through of a Dunkin' Donuts.

Is this the coffee macchiato?

DESTIN: What kinds of capabilities did you bring with you?

So I could administer fluids. I can intubate. I can sedate. I can do all the things that we're hoping we don't have to do.

DESTIN: So what are the risks you're thinking here?

Very little, definitely.

Yeah.

DESTIN: OK.

Once we started rolling down the road, Kale started what I thought was freaking out. But turns out he was just trying to get comfortable. He would turn sideways in his box, and he would put his chin up in the air. He would just do it over and over again. And it was concerning. But eventually, Dr. Keller said, let him do what he wants. Let him stay comfortable.

That looks like he's going to hurt his neck.

DR. KELLER: Move him back away, and I'll bet he'll put himself right back in that position.

DESTIN: Yeah.

DR. KELLER: You can move him if you want.

WOMAN: No, we haven't moved him this whole time.

DESTIN: Every so often when we got gas, we would moisturize his skin.

DR. KELLER: So if we didn't keep him moist, he'd be just like us if we were laying out in the hot sun and our skin became parched and dry and became dehydrated. So this benefits him in the long term, because I feel like he's going to have fewer skin lesions, fewer abrasions.

And quite honestly, even his shell, which the outer layers of which are not living, they're not vital-- it's keratin, just like our fingernails-- that will continue a better looking appearance and won't flake and dry like it does if it's left totally to dry out in the air.

DESTIN: After that, we'd get back on the road, and Kale would get right back to his position.

That's what he-- [LAUGHS] there it is. Finally, after 12 hours on the road, we made it back to Decatur, where Kale was greeted by yet another generation of the Cook family before he made his way to his quarantine tank.

So what's the plan now, Dr. Keller?

We're going to take him out of that tank. And we're going to give him a fresh water bath. Salt water parasites don't like fresh water. So we're just going to do it briefly.

Yeah, he's doing it. There it is. He's Supermanning. There you go. Easy. Easy, easy, easy, easy.

That's that Superman pose. There he goes.

DESTIN: So what are you seeing right now?

An animal that's settling in pretty quickly and acting like you would want him to act after a long transport. His buoyancy is equivalent. He's obviously using all four limbs effectively. And he's showing very few signs, if any, of stress from the journey. So we're really happy with what we're seeing right now.

DESTIN: So how long will Kale stay in this facility?

He'll be here approximately two weeks. At such time, we'll be able to monitor him and also monitor the fish that we put in with him and make sure that there are no health issues with either of them. And then at some point in the future, hopefully at around two weeks, we'll be able to move him from this very brief quarantine into the tank that he'll be living the rest of his days in.

DESTIN: The quarantine period seemed to go great. Cassie got this really cool video of Kale eating some blue crab.

OK, so today's the day we're about to move Kale over to the big tank. Right, Cassie?

Yes.

DESTIN: OK, you excited?

Yes.

DESTIN: OK, I can imagine. Cool. Where do you want me, Doc? Where do I need to be?

Wherever you want to be.

DESTIN: OK, I'll be over here. I'll get out of the way.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

• You got it.

I got him. Watch out, his bite. You're all right, beautiful.

Ow. Ow, ow, ow.

You got ointment?

That was pretty exciting.

Lift him up.

DESTIN: Are they lifting Kale up?

Yep.

4, 3, 2, 1. Stop.

DR. KELLER: There you go, big guy. Come on.

OK.

All right. I'm coming down outside.

OK, you can come up.

DESTIN: Once Kale figured out what plexiglass was and started to understand the layout of the aquarium, he or she finally decided to swim. And it was incredible to watch.

This was the first time that this injured, endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle had been able to swim freely in over a year.

I've never seen a turtle take a nap.

CHILD: He's so cute.

DESTIN: What's he doing?

He's adorable. He's sleeping. He's just so adorable and cute.

So why do I love sea turtles? You could say it begins with their scrappy start in life, up against such incredible odds on their very first day. They're navigators of vast oceans, some traveling as long as a century. They're air breathers in water, and they're aquatic creatures on land. They're gentle. They're beautiful. They're graceful. And they're peaceful.

They're swimmers and sleepers, crawlers and diggers. They're world citizens who always return home. It almost seems like they're everyone's friend. Sea turtles are amazing. And I love them.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of Smarter Every Day. If you want to come see Kale, you can do that. Come to the Cook Museum in Decatur, Alabama, Cook Museum of Natural Science. The whole point is life is amazing, and they have all kinds of stuff that you can see to verify that for yourself.

Anyway, I like to look at Kale's fistula. Kale puts on quite the show. I like to watch Kale glide through the water and think about how the control surfaces of the fins work and all that. You got to come on down.

I'll also leave a link down in the video description to figure out how you can do that if you're interested. You can also donate to help feed Kale if you're interested in that.

I hope you enjoyed learning about sea turtles with me. I learned a lot in a short amount of time. They are a beautiful, beautiful animal. I hope you feel that way, too.

Anyway, feel free to subscribe if you're into that. Not a big deal. I'm Destin getting Smarter Every Day. Have a good one. Bye.