I was going through my pictures yesterday and I realized that when I did my series on Charleston I had skipped one! So before starting my next series (Yay China!), I wanted to share this image, and maybe give you a fun activity idea for your next visit to the Charleston area. Sea turtles!
While we were on our family vacation to Isle of Palms this past May, our nieces discovered that there was going to be a sea turtle release, which the public can come and watch. On this particular day, the South Carolina Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Rescue program was scheduled to release 5 different turtles, so it sounded like something of a spectacle, and it certainly was! Definitely worth checking out.
Boyles, pictured above, was one of the five. This particular turtle had been spotted by some fishermen in July of 2014, and was obviously not doing well. After almost two years of rehabilitation work (you can read about Boyles’ entire journey here) by the Sea Turtle Rescue program though, this big guy was ready to go back in the water. You could see the excitement on the worker’s faces as I’m sure this is the moment they’re all aiming for as they work with these animals, and it was fun to watch for kids of all ages. 🙂
If you’re in the area and you’d like to watch one of these releases, keep an eye on the South Carolina Aquarium’s Facebook page, which is where they make the announcements. You’ll want to arrive early though, as these are evidently very well attended. I will say though, even though we arrived just a little bit before the release, we were able move around and get a good view of the turtles. The workers and volunteers carry the turtles a little way and then set them down in the sand for a minute so that the people nearby can get a look at them, and then they move them a little further down, etc. If you’d like an even more involved experience, you can take part in the rescue program through donations, or by adopting one of the animals, and you’ll get a front-row spot on the day of the release (and you also get email notifications on the release dates). Super super neat, and definitely something you don’t see everyday!
–Dan Thompson