Out to sea
Oceanographer’s ashes are sent to sea aboard rescued turtle
PORT ARANSAS, Texas — A rescued green sea turtle was released this weekend back into the Gulf of Mexico, carrying the ashes of a self-taught Texas oceanographer who founded the rehabilitation center that nursed it back to health.
Thousands attended a ceremony Saturday evening that effectively will allow Tony Amos, who devoted his life to helping the endangered reptiles, to do so once more in death. His final voyage came on a stretch of beach named in his honor.
Amos, 80, died of complications from prostate cancer on Sept. 4, mere days after Harvey roared ashore as a fearsome Category 4 hurricane. It caused extensive damage to the Animal Rehabilitation Keep for ailing sea turtles and aquatic birds that Amos opened nearly four decades ago.
But the turtles there weathered the storm well — as their counterparts in the wild also appear to have done, scientists say.
An early hatching season meant most turtles headed to sea before the storm arrived, with their eggs already hatched rather than lying on the beach to be subsumed. Also, few turtles became stranded inland as Harvey pulled the tide far out and, since the punishing winds and rains subsided, only a relatively small number has washed back onshore or been found among storm debris.
“This certainly could have been worse,” said Tim Tristan, executive director of the Texas Sealife Center, a nonprofit rescue and rehabilitation facility in Corpus Christi, close to where Harvey first made landfall Aug. 25. Five of the world’s seven sea turtle species are found in the Gulf of Mexico and have been documented in parts of Texas: green, hawksbill, Kemp’s ridley, leatherback and loggerhead.
At Amos’ turtle and aquatic bird center in the Harvey-ravaged beach town of Port Aransas, the hurricane smashed roof tiles and solar panels and collapsed parts of buildings. Partially submerged, concrete tanks housing around 60 rescue turtles were also damaged, but the animals weren’t harmed. Even Barnacle Bill, a 200plus pound loggerhead who first came to the center in 1997, was fine despite the storm mangling the cover of his pool.
Staff arriving by pickup truck had to steer though downed powerlines and assorted destruction to reach the rehabilitation facility just after Harvey passed. They put turtles in the back before returning a second time with plastic tubs.
“We had turtles crawling around back there,” said Jace Tunnell, director of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, which encompasses Amos’ rehabilitation center. Animals well enough were released to sea, but those who weren’t went to Tristin’s facility. They will likely remain there for months amid repairs to the Animal Rehabilitation Keep.