The Gulf of Mexico is home to five of the seven sea turtle species. Three of these: Kemp’s Ridley, loggerhead, and green sea turtles, are readily found in Mississippi waters. The coastal waters of the northern Gulf are an important habitat for juvenile Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, the most critically endangered sea turtle in the world.
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Sea Turtle Strandings and Rehabilitation
IMMS is an active member of the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network, and since 2010, has responded to hundreds of live, and dead, sea turtle strandings. An important part of our work is responding to incidental captures of sea turtles. With the help of fishermen who call the hotline, we are able to get these turtles the help and care they need. If you are out fishing and you catch a sea turtle, please do not try to remove the hook yourself. Call our stranding hotline and we will come get the turtle from you and bring it back to our facility where we can safely remove the hook and care for any other injuries or ailments it may have before releasing it back into the ocean.
Turtles that come to us are looked after by our excellent vet staff, who are dedicated to the health and wellbeing of every one of our animals. After a thorough examination by our on-site veterinarian, Dr. Debra Moore, they are taken to one of several pools we have for rehabilitating turtles. Periodic checks by our veterinarian keep us well informed of their health and recovery. When they are deemed healthy, they are released back into the ocean by our staff.
Just before release we tag the turtles in our care with flipper tags and pit tags, which allow us to monitor site fidelity and occurrences of re-stranding among the local population. In the past we have also use satellite telemetry to track some of the turtles after they have been released. We attached satellite tracking devices to the carapace which transmitted a signal each time the turtle broke the surface. We were able to examine the movements and migrations of these juvenile turtles.
Please help us save and protect these wonderful creatures and if you see one on the beach, either alive or dead, or you catch one while fishing call our hotline at:
1-888-SOS-DOLPHIN!
