Sea Turtle Swims to Freedom

The day started out very well today... Monica and I drove to the Gulfarium in Destin to pick up YYN 568, aka "Loco." It was time to release s/him to the wild after about three weeks of care and training.



Amanda and the folks in Destin taught our little TED research escapee how to feed well enough to survive in the wild. Captain Dave and Jeremy Brown took us to sea aboard the Y Knot. These two gentlemen from Blue Water Adventures rescued an entangled Kemp's ridley a few weeks ago.



You can see they have an affinity for this little loggerhead, even though Loco is trying to swim through the air.



S/he acted the same way with Monica. Clearly, this turtle was ready to return to the Gulf of Mexico. Hope we'll see him or her represented in the nesting population in about 20 more years!



Amanda took many of the photos with my camera today while I returned Loco the the sea.



It was so hard to see Loco leave, but s/he was quite at home, dashing instantly for the sea floor. I should have some good pictures from Jeremy (who's in the water) in a day or so... Thanks, Mark, for letting us take the day to return this animal to it's natural home!