OCEANOGRAPHER WILL SWIM WITH TURTLES FOREVER
PORT ARANSAS, TEXAS» A rescued green sea turtle named Picasso was released back into the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, carrying the ashes of a self-taught Texas oceanographer who founded the rehabilitation center that helped nurse it back to health.
Hundreds of well-wishers surged forward to get better views during a sunset ceremony that effectively allowed Tony Amos, who devoted his life to helping the endangered reptiles, to do so once more in death. On a stretch of beach named in Amos’ honor, his wife, Lynn, his son, Michael and other relatives sprinkled his ashes on the turtle’s back, then watched it slowly flap and craw its way into the waves.
“Come on, little turtle, off you go. The sun’s about to set,” called Lynn Amos, when the creature stopped and briefly raised its head, almost as if to acknowledge the onlookers.
When the turtle finally disappeared into the shimmering surf, a few cried, “Bye, Tony!”
Amos, 80, died of complications from prostate cancer on Sept. 4, mere days after Harvey roared ashore as a fearsome Category 4 hurricane. It damaged 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.