Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to
Smarter Every Day. I'm a mechanical and
aerospace engineer. So when it comes to things like
shock waves or laminar flow or snatch blocks or aircraft
and things like that, I'm very comfortable
learning things, because I know the lingo. And I can ask
questions that make me seem like I know what
I'm talking about, right? But I'm not a biologist. So today on Smarter Every
Day, I want to show you this journey that I've been on. You see, we're going to
learn about sea turtles. But we're going
to learn about sea turtles in a really weird way. I kind of struggled with how
to do the intro to this video, because I did not
plan this video. I feel like sea turtles
kind of found me. So when you think about
sea turtles, for example, they're very cute. Everyone likes sea turtles. They're kind of a quiet animal. They just do their thing. They don't pose a
threat to humans. If anything, we're kind
of in their way, right? But think about this. A sea turtle lives about
as long as a human. And a sea turtle
loves the beach. That's where they
plant their eggs. And humans love the beach. So naturally, we are going
to bump into sea turtles all the time. And that may or may not be a
good thing for the sea turtle. Well, the first time I ever
interacted with a sea turtle in the wild was in Hawaii. [BABY BABBLING] I was on business with my
wife and two daughters. And we were there. And every minute we had to
spare, we would go swimming. That's what we'd love to do. In fact, my daughter,
and I, we love to see all the new types of
fishes we've never seen before. And so we would always
find any available water. We'd throw on some goggles,
and we would go under and see what we could see. Well, one day, we found
this neat little outcropping of volcanic rock. So I got my goggles,
and I jumped in. And the thing about
it is the rocks were really rough on
the bottom, and the surf was crashing in and out. So you would be
moved with the water as it came in and out to shore. Well, I got out there
and started swimming. And something really
interesting happened. I saw this blob off
in the distance. And suddenly, it
just came up to me. It was a sea turtle. And this was the
first time I had ever seen a sea turtle in the wild. I did not expect this. I was left with this
sense of awe and wonder. It's like I felt like I
had been in the presence of a great creature. And it almost left
me, like, emotional. It was really strange. And so this video was
never meant to be made. It just kind of happened. Over the last year and a half,
I have had several opportunities to interact with sea turtles
on many different levels. And I totally didn't expect it. This is going to be
less of me giving you the knowledge about
sea turtles, because I don't have the knowledge. All these experts
have the knowledge. What we're going to
do today is we're going to go through
all of these events. And I'm just going to share
my experience with you and say, hey, this is
something that happened. Because I firmly believe
that the more you get to interact
with a sea turtle in its natural environment
and the more you see it doing its
thing, the more you'll come to love this animal,
because I certainly have. So here's what
we're going to do. We're going to go
through all this stuff. And then at the end
here, I was actually asked if I wanted to go get
a sea turtle, an endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle, and
help transport it from Virginia Beach back to Decatur, Alabama. And so the last
part of this video is going to be just
that happening. Anyway, I'm very excited
about this if you can't tell. Today, we're going to go get
smarter every day that I got to interact with sea turtles. Let's go do it. Last summer for
vacation, the family decided we wanted
to go learn Spanish. So we went to Costa Rica
and attended a Spanish camp. This company called
Explornatura organized these different educational
trips for all the students in the evenings. My daughter wanted to go
to the Verdiazul Sea Turtle Conservation Center. And when we got there,
Danny sat us down for a full-on lecture
on sea turtles. And it was awesome. He taught us about the
seven different species and how you can tell different
turtles by their tracks and whether they're
symmetric or not. He also showed us
that different turtles dig their nests at different
depths in the sand. After this, we learned how
they lay eggs in a nest. And this is fascinating. Basically, the turtle goes out
and digs a hole in the sand and then lays the eggs
down in the bottom. And it will lightly pack sand
in between there and the top and then put fluffy
sand at the very top to camouflage the nest. When the little baby turtles
start to pip and emerge from the eggs, the shell falls
down to the bottom of the hole, and all the fluid drains out. This creates an air pocket
up above the turtles, because that volume
is displaced. And they all start to
thrash at the same time. There's something called
socially facilitated ascent. They all thrash and
thrash and thrash, and that makes the sand
that's on top of them get transported down below them. And if they keep
doing this enough, they'll all emerge together. The thing is, some of them
stay behind down below. And over the course of
one to three nights, additional groups will emerge. There are so many things I
learned about sea turtle nests that are legitimately amazing. For example, whether you're
a baby boy turtle or a baby girl turtle is a function of
the temperature of your egg. That's real. I had to look that up,
because that's amazing. That means that where the egg is
stacked in the sea turtle nest is going to determine the sex
of each individual turtle, because there's going
to be a temperature gradient across the nest. It's amazing. After we learned all this
stuff, we went out to the beach where Zoe, a
volunteer, had prepared a simulated nest for us. We had to follow the tracks
from the turtle up to the beach, try to find where the
nest was, and then we drew a grid on the sand
and lightly pressed a stick into different areas. If the sand was firm, that's
not where the nest was. If the stick went
through, that's where the turtle dug the nest. At that point, we
dug down, and we retrieved the simulated eggs. If you ever, ever find a
sea turtle nest in the wild, do not disturb it. The whole point of this exercise
here at the conservation center is all these eggs are laid
all over this particular beach in Costa Rica. And they're very
difficult to defend from predators and even humans. So what they do is they
go retrieve the eggs, and they move them
to a hatchery. The whole point
of the hatchery is to get the maximum
number of baby turtles out into the water in
hopes that they will live and the population will grow. So Zoe, the volunteer
that showed us how to find the eggs
and all that good stuff, she walked us over
to the hatchery. And she introduced me
to the mother of turtles or, said in Spanish,
madre de tortugas. Hello. OK, this is Valerie. VALERIE: Hola. You guys are a club. Valerie is the lead biologist
over the hatchery here. Si? VALERIE: Si. Si. Is it OK if I video? VALERIE: Si, si. OK. So Valerie, you're
a researcher, right? VALERIE: Yes, I'm a researcher. DESTIN: In Espanol, [SPANISH]. Oh my goodness. VALERIE: Si. DESTIN: These are the babies? VALERIE: Si. DESTIN: Which species? VALERIE: All these, ridleys. DESTIN: You ever
seen baby turtles? No, I haven't. DESTIN: Oh. [SPANISH]? VALERIE: Si, they are-- they was on the top. But they really need to wake up. [LAUGHS] DESTIN: Si. So some of them already hatch
and go out three days ago. But there's some babies
that are still on the egg, and that's the babies
that I'm taking out right now, the last ones. DESTIN: So naturally,
those would die. Naturally, maybe, yes. [INAUDIBLE] come to
taking out or a raccoon. DESTIN: But you're
the mother turtle. Yes. [LAUGHTER] Yes. DESTIN: [SPEAKING SPANISH] Si, loco. [SPEAKING SPANISH] DESTIN: Si. Perfecto. [SPEAKING SPANISH] To wait. DESTIN: To wait. Uh-huh. DESTIN: So you're going to
wait before you release them? Si, yes. DESTIN: How long do you wait? Until they wake up. And they have to be active. DESTIN: But you're going to
release them in the ocean today. Yes, yes. DESTIN: Wow. So this is a really
interesting moment for me, because what's going on here
is Valerie right here is-- she's caring for the
turtles that just hatched. And she's trying to make
sure that they survive and all that kind of stuff. But at the same time, anytime
you have research and stuff, there's this very public-facing
component that has to happen. But at the same
time, she's patiently got a clipboard in her hand. And she's thinking
about, you know, are these turtles
going to survive? How long were they-- you
know, incubation period for the turtles. But this is a
really neat moment, because she's doing
some hardcore work. But the team is having
to tap dance a little bit and show us, the public,
why it's important and why this should
be interesting and things like that. So this is just a larger
metaphor for science communication or just
environmental education in general, I think. So watch Valerie. Watch how much care and
patience she has when she's doing the actual hard work. And again, this is the moment
that the turtles hatch, right? This is one hour. And they've got dozens and
dozens of hours of work that went into this
one hour of, oh, we're about to release baby turtles. Very interesting. Ouch. That's a lot of responsibility. [LAUGHS] Look at them. DESTIN: Yeah. Follow Valerie. Do everything she says. VALERIE: [INAUDIBLE] We're
going to see if they're going to wake up today. DESTIN: And so you're
walking to the beach where the nest was laid. Yes, where the
mother laid the eggs. DESTIN: Es importante? We try to do the same
things that the turtle did. And the other thing is
if we release always in the same place-- for example, in high
season, every day, we release maybe
thousand of turtles. And it's to make
a place when it's going to be easy food
for the other animals. DESTIN: Predators. Predators. That's why, also, we try to do
the place that the mother laid the eggs. DESTIN: And this leads us to
one of the most intense things I saw at the Conservation
Center there in Costa Rica. So much effort has gone into
setting these hatchlings up for success. But ultimately, they have
to prove that they're strong enough to make it. Valerie drew a literal
line in the sand and let each of these turtles
determine their own fate. So you make them
walk five meters to make sure they're
strong enough to survive. More than, uh-huh. Yes. Because people say that turtles
used to come to the same place, OK? But it's to the same area. DESTIN: Si. And it's important to
recognize many things, the magnetic file, many
things that we don't really-- or I don't really know. But for me, it's more to be
like the natural process, to be strong, and to
recognize the place and to make it [inaudible] DESTIN: How many do you
think will survive here? I don't know. About from 1,000 turtles. DESTIN: In this-- [SPANISH] I hope everybody. [LAUGHS] DESTIN: We'll see. Hopefully so. This was an incredibly
intense moment knowing that the lifespan
of each of these turtles could be over 50 years. But in order for
that to start, they had to make it to the water. I have never wanted an
animal to do something so badly in my entire life. Finally, after several
minutes, this happened. [WAVES CRASHING] [CHATTER] Watching this little sea turtle
make it out there to the ocean made me feel all the things. And I suspect you
feel the same way. Don't worry about
the other ones. Valerie gave them an opportunity
to make it out to the ocean later that night. I don't know how many made
it, but this is the beginning. The turtles are now
out in the ocean. At this point, other
scientists take over. And they research what's
going on out there. I saw a video on the
internet one time from a lady named Dr.
Christine Figgener. She's known as the
Sea Turtle Biologist. And it just made me
feel other things. So I tracked her
down and asked her if she'd be willing to talk
to me over a Zoom call, and she was. I am here with Dr.
Christine Figgener, who is Sea Turtle
Biologist on YouTube. Is that correct? This is correct, yes. I just want to talk to
you about your research for a second if that's OK. Yeah, no worries. I always love talking
about sea turtles. [LAUGHS] It's my understanding that
you're in Costa Rica right now. You study sea turtles. Tell me a little bit
about your research. So I'm trying to do science
that is actually having real-life applications. And it goes towards the
protection of biodiversity. So I do a lot of
movement ecology. That means I'm trying to figure
out where turtles are going and where they're spending
most of their times while they're in the water. I'm also doing a lot
about diet, so I'm interested what kind of diet
sources they mainly use. And all of that,
I'm doing because I want to have the best data
available to actually know what is valuable to protect. What have you discovered
through your research? What is the thing that
you've learned about turtles that you're most excited about? Usually, most sea
turtle species actually have very distinct breeding
grounds and then very distinct foraging, so feeding grounds. And they just kind of
move between those areas back and forth. Sometimes, of course,
there's years in between, because females especially
skip about one to two years in between each of
their nesting seasons. But that particular species
that I've been studying-- that is, the olive ridley turtle--
it's the smallest of all sea turtles. They are literally nomadic. So they have no
actual distinct area. So because my whole
intent was, OK, I'm going to figure out
where they are feeding so we can think about how we can
best protect that defined area, but it happened or
turned out that they're using the entire
Eastern Pacific Ocean. They are really far traveling. And even the population that
just nests in Costa Rica doesn't have just one area. So they go to the north. They go to the south. They go out into the
western part of the ocean. So you study
the Pacific Ocean. That was for the
Pacific, right, for my PhD. Right now, I'm actually
on the Caribbean. That's where my conservation
and research project nowadays is located. And we're studying hawksbill
turtles, one of the two most endangered species. And the big problem we have is
that for centuries, hawksbills have been used to create
objects made from tortoiseshell. So I think you might
know tortoiseshell for glasses and jewelry. And almost every
single button in Europe in the past centuries that
were made from tortoiseshell were made from hawksbill. So all of those
seafaring nations brought hawksbills in huge
quantities back to Europe. And that has absolutely
diminished the populations in the entire world. So talking to Dr.
Figgener showed me a lot of things that
were right in front of me the whole time that
I never realized. For example, if you go to a
store and you look at glasses, you'll see this really
interesting pattern known as tortoiseshell. Now, I always thought that
was just kind of, you know, something like a cheetah
print or something like that. That's just the pattern name. Turns out, back in the
day, that was literally made by hawksbill turtle shell. And I didn't know this. In fact, today, there is a
traditional Japanese craft called Edo Bekko. But there's things like hairpins
and just brooches and things like that that are made
out of tortoiseshell. And I can't deny that
it's absolutely beautiful. And I went down the
Google rabbit hole, and I started finding that
traditional craftsmen would take the tortoiseshell. And they would heat it up, and
they would press it under heat. And it has the ability
to retain that shape-- interestingly,
much like plastic. So there are material
properties of a tortoise shell that are unique. Obviously, this is
taking a material from an endangered species. And this is a
negative thing to do, which is why, in
1994, Japan actually outlawed the import of
hawksbill turtle shell. Unfortunately, right now,
people still do it illegally. Tortoise shells and sea
turtle shells are illegally traded and shipped mainly to-- you guessed it-- China,
where it's sold illegally. If you're ever in a market
in a different country and you come across
a product that looks like this
really pretty pattern, this tortoiseshell
pattern, it might actually be from a hawksbill turtle. So think twice about giving your
money to something like that, because you could be
unwittingly supporting the illegal trade
of tortoiseshell and indirectly funding
the killing of a turtle. I did not know that. You're trying to figure out
where these things live, what types of things
affect their mating habits, their ability to reproduce. And we are trying right
now to see how we can best recover those populations. So again, we need to figure out
where do they actually live. So not just the
adults, because we know where the females are nesting. But where do we have the
developing stages, as well? So where are the
juveniles, the subadults? Because that is
always the status that we don't know that much
about, because it's so easy to get nesting females, right? Because they're on the beach. You have access to them. But finding all the other
stages in the open ocean is super difficult. But the area where I live,
we have a huge coral reef. And we have hawksbills
feeding there, and we actually have juvenile
hawksbills and subadults feeding there. So what I do is I place little
satellite transmitters on them to see what areas
exactly they're using, what is their preferred
kind of range of movement. And then I'm also
interested in, once they grow to a certain size,
where do they head next? Because the females
that are actually nesting on the beaches that are
right adjacent to those areas, they are not feeding there. So once they're
done nesting, they are actually moving to
Nicaragua and other places. What would you say
to a young person that wants to become a
marine biologist like you? What advice would you give? Become comfortable
with being uncomfortable. [LAUGHS] Yeah? Well, I mean, it always
sounds so romantic. I mean, I love my job. Don't get me wrong. But I'm totally
an outdoor person. And I have met so
many people that love the idea of being
a sea turtle biologist, but they hate their
guts in the field. They love talking over it,
be about like, oh, yeah, I study sea turtles. But when you see them in the
field, they're just miserable. So I think unless you're really
passionate about all of that, I don't think this
is it for you. I mean, and I don't
think it's bad. There are a lot of people
that come to my projects. They do one season. And they say, that wasn't
a great experience. I don't think I need that again. Be comfortable with
being uncomfortable. That's good. Thank you. Yeah. You filmed probably
the most famous turtle video on the entire internet. And I've seen this everywhere. I did some research,
and I learned that you were the person
that filmed this video. I first saw this video on
the internet a long time ago. And it created a very
emotional response for me. I saw these people on the boat,
and they pulled a straw out of the sea turtle's nose. Am I allowed to show
a clip of this video on Smarter Every Day here? Is that OK? Oh, absolutely. Yes, please. Could you just explain what
happened in this video briefly? We were on a
boat at that moment where we've been sampling
turtles the entire day already. I did some of my stable
isotope analysis stuff. And I had also a
colleague on the boat that was interested in epibionts
so the little critters that live on the turtle. And that particular turtle
had not only, you know, barnacles growing
all over its shell, but it had something funny
encrusted in its nose, which we thought it might be an
encrusted barnacle or some kind of worm. But then when we
started pulling on it and I was actually filming him
while he was pulling on it, it became longer and longer. And it started
having black stripes. And it became less and
less like something that I would have said
is of biological origin. So that was the moment that
we decided, OK, you know what? Before we start or
continue pulling, let's just cut of a piece of that
and then figure out what it is. So we did that. And my local assistant actually
picked it up, bit on it, and said, it's plastic. And I had already in
my mind, thinking, like, yeah, that object
looks really familiar. I mean, it almost
looks like a straw. But I remember that I
couldn't really believe it. I was like, oh, yeah, right,
a straw in a turtle's nose? But that was really the
moment I was like, oh, man, that really is a straw. It's a plastic straw that is
stuck in that turtle's nose. And yeah, from that moment
onwards, we were just like, OK, we can't leave it in the turtle. And we removed it entirely. We kind of looked at him,
if he is otherwise OK. We put some iodine
into the nostrils. And then we released
him, and he was just happy to get away and out
into the open ocean again. And it's my
understanding that you have documented another
encounter with this turtle. So you know that it's OK. Yeah. Unfortunately, we
didn't get video of it. We found him, actually,
again about two years later. One of my local assistants
was out spear fishing, and he saw a male mating
with another female and saw that this male had tags. And he sent me the tag
numbers, and it happened to be exactly that male. So he was enjoying his life. [LAUGHS] That's amazing. So this is a moment
where you-- well, there's many stories here. There's the whole straw part. And I follow you on Twitter. I know that you hate straws. However, this is a
really interesting thing. So you were able to-- I'm not going to say heal,
but rehabilitate this turtle by taking the man-made object
out of the turtle's body and returning it to the wild. And it's a success story, right? He still lived
two years after, so I hope it's a success. And he was probably
able to make new babies. So that's also a
success, I guess. I'm about to do
something interesting. I have learned about a turtle. It's a Kemp's ridley. Am I saying that correctly? Is that a correct-- Yes, a Kemp's ridley, yes. Can you tell me about
a Kemp's ridley turtle? What are they? So Kemp's ridleys
are quite interesting. They have, for the longest time,
been the most endangered sea turtles, because
their numbers had just been plummeting in
the '70s and '80s because of fishing especially. And there's quite a success
story behind Kemp's ridleys, because there was a
binational project that started a head-start program. So they collected
every single nest that was laid on the entire
coast of the Gulf of Mexico, translated them into
facilities to incubate them, completely protected
and very controlled. Then they released them for
a little while on the beach, because we know already that sea
turtles return to the beaches that they've been born on. And they imprint
in the time likely where they make their way
from the nest to the water and when they start swimming. So we didn't want to take
away this cue from them. So they released them. And then there were
people in the waterlines that were catching out
those turtles again. And then those turtles
were placed into pools and actually grown to
that size that I've been talking about when
they usually travel out into the open ocean up until
they have a certain size, and then they recruit
back to coastal areas. And then they were released. And with that head-start
program, which, to be quite honest,
head-starting is always a very much debated topic, because
a lot of stuff can go wrong-- but for that particular species,
it was really the saving grace. So it made sure that
we now have numbers that are actually able to
sustain a population again. Dr. Figgener, thank you so
much for helping us understand this stuff a little bit better. It's my understanding
that we're going to get to participate in
retrieving the sea turtle Kale, who's been injured. And we're going to travel
from there all the way back to the museum, where Kale
will find his permanent home. When you say "museum,"
it sounds as if it's going to be a stuffed turtle. [LAUGHS] It's not. Kale has an aquarium. You need to come to Decatur. But maybe you
should specify that, like the aquarium of
the museum or something, because it really
sounds like she will have her forever home
in this beautiful museum. No, not at all. Kale is going to
the Cook Museum. They have a huge aquarium. Christine, you have to-- I don't know that. You have to come. OK, so let me specify. Kale is going to have
a whole aquarium where he gets to hang out. And they've got coral in
there and tropical fish. You should come
visit and hang out. It's a really cool museum. I should, definitely. She's pretty cool, right? So big thanks to Dr.
Figgener for talking to us from Costa Rica,
where she's doing sea turtle research. If you'd like to
connect with her, she's on YouTube at the
Sea Turtle Biologist. Also, she's on this new
app called Milkywire. She said she prefers if people
connect to her that way. You can support her research
directly through this app. So I'll leave the link down in
the video description for that. All right. Before we go to the Cook
Museum of Natural Science and meet my buddy Brian
Cook, what I'd like to do is show you a sea turtle
nest that I found myself here in Alabama. Sea turtles make nests
all over the ocean. Down here in the Gulf of
Mexico, I'm in Mobile Bay. You can see a
beautiful sunset here. Check it out. It's a sea turtle nest. Who knows? That sea turtle might make it
all the way up to the east side of the United States. That could be a Kemp's
ridley for all we know. So I'm learning all this
stuff about sea turtles. And a sea turtle adoption/rescue
just falls in my lap. And I kind of want to explain
it to you, because it's a really fun story. Way back in 1928, a
guy named John Cook started a company called North
Alabama Termite Company, which he handed off to his son,
also named John Cook. Now, this John Cook was
a master at marketing. He changed the name of the
company to Cook's Pest Control. And if you live in the
southeast United States, you have heard the
jingle to this company. [MUSIC PLAYING] SINGER: (SINGING)
Lookie, lookie, lookie, here comes Cookie. Cook's Pest Control. If you're from the
southeast, you've heard that. I know you have. Anyway, so here's the deal. John Cook decides
he needs to educate his employees about the pests
they're trying to control. So he starts this huge
insect collection. And people from all over
are so interested in it, they want to come see it. In fact, school
groups start coming to the museum on field trips. And it becomes the Cook's
Natural Science Museum. Fast forward two
generations, my buddy Brian enters the business. They're looking around. They see the old museum. They're like, this
thing's getting old. We should either upgrade
it or tear it down. And they create the Cook
Museum of Natural Science. The whole point of the
museum is to show you that life is amazing by
allowing you to engage with the natural world. Butterflies, bees, honeypot
ants, birds, caves, minerals, space, aquariums. It's awesome. It's in my hometown. You totally have to
come check it out. So one day, I'm
talking to Brian. And he's like, we might
have an opportunity to get an endangered sea
turtle for the museum. And I pretty much invited
myself on the trip. OK, so this is the Cook
Museum of Natural Science. And this is my
buddy, Brian Cook. Hey. DESTIN: So Brian, how
long have you guys been working on the museum here? It's been, what, five years? Yeah, well, it's actually
been 8 and 1/2 years from the decision to
expand, relocate, and create a whole
new non-profit museum. DESTIN: So you guys designed
and built an aquarium just hoping you would get a sea
turtle before it was ever really a thing, right? Yeah, that was
part of the idea was to house an
endangered sea turtle. Early on in the very
beginning, originally, it started out as small,
self-contained aquariums. And then the vision expanded
to a 15,000-gallon saltwater aquarium and the idea of
doing something substantial and meaningful. DESTIN: So what's it mean
to have an endangered sea turtle in Decatur, Alabama? Pretty awesome? Yeah, it's a big deal. DESTIN: Are you guys pumped? BRIAN COOK: Yeah,
we're super excited. OK. Let's go get a turtle. Virginia Beach. Let's do it. [MUSIC PLAYING] OK, so we're 10 hours
into a 12-hour drive to Virginia Beach. My question is, how are
we going to get a sea turtle 12 hours back to
Decatur, Alabama, in a vehicle? The rumor is I'm
going to get to be in the vehicle with the
turtle all the way back. So I'm excited to
find out what we do. Do we need water? I have no idea. Let's go check it out. So we wanted to know
the full history of the turtle we're
going to take back to the Cook Museum in Decatur. So we decided to go
see the exact spot where the turtle was caught. The problem is, when we
contacted local authorities to ask about it,
they said that we couldn't go out onto the pier. It's called the
James T. Wilson Pier. The locals know it
as the Buckroe Pier. The reason you can't go out
there is during a storm, not too long after
the turtle was caught, a barge got loose and
slammed into the pier and made a part of it collapse. So the only way we can see
where the turtle was caught is if we were to fly
out over the pier, which is why I'm really excited that
this episode of Smarter Every Day is sponsored by DJI. This is the first time I've
ever flown a drone myself for a video in
Smarter Every Day. This is the DJI Mavic
Mini, an ultra-light drone that's only 249 grams. This is the first time
I've ever flown this thing. And I was nervous, because we
were flying out over the water to see the pier where
this turtle was caught. There it is. You can see where
the barge hit it. Usually, this thing would be
filled with people fishing. And sometimes turtles will go
after their bait or the fish they've caught. It's awesome. So yeah, there you have it. This thing is amazingly
easy to operate. The software is fantastic. If you would like
to get one of these, it's called the DJI Mavic Mini. Or do what I recommend. You can get the DJI Mavic
Mini Fly More Combo, which comes with three batteries. Each battery gets you up to 30
minutes of flight time, which is insane. So with the Fly More Combo,
you can have up to 90 minutes of flight time. And you can shoot
fantastic footage. So if you would
like to do that, go use the link in the video
description and the promo code that's there. And you can get a
discount on this thing. You're going to love it. Ever since I started
using this thing, I keep it in my truck with me. And I have explored
countless things from the air that I never would have
thought about before, but it's kind of opened
up a whole new world of possibilities to me. Please consider going
to the DJI website by using the link in
the video description and use the promo code. Smarter Every Day will get
credit for you using that link. Anyway, that's awesome. Thank you to DJI for
sponsoring Smarter Every Day, and thank you for helping us get
awesome footage of this pier. The following morning, I
went downstairs in the hotel to meet the Cook Museum
personnel who drove to Virginia to pick up the turtle. This is happening in the
middle of a pandemic, so there's an ongoing
discussion about masks. So is Kale going
back in this van? He will be. Yes. In this van? Yes. So this was a
fun little moment where we realize we're going to
be in the same vehicle for 12 hours together. And yeah, I guess
we're family now. So we decided that we were
going to quarantine together at this point. And that's why you're going
to see various levels of mask usage in this video. Also, just a reminder, this
video's about sea turtles. We arrived at the Virginia
Aquarium & Marine Science Center, and the Cook Museum
team was greeted by Erin. OK, this is Erin. Erin, what do you do here? Hi, I am the husbandry
and nesting manager as part of the Stranding
Response Program. DESTIN: Stranding
response meaning a turtle has been captured by
a human or injured or something like that? Wide range of things. We'll actually respond to both
sea turtles and marine mammals, any sick, injured, out of
habitat, incidentally captured animal, live and dead. We will respond to
it in the state. We'll also assist with
neighboring states, as well. DESTIN: That's amazing. So I don't know if
you can see this, but I'm in a huge facility. And there's a lot of
water being pumped around, so it's kind of noisy. That's a fighter
jet I hear overhead. We do. We are right at the
end of Oceana's runway. So we get to hear the
sound of freedom often. [LAUGHS] DESTIN: Sound of freedom,
that sounds good. Erin walked the team around and
showed everybody what went down at the Stranding Center. By the way, the team consists of
Dr. Keller, who's got expertise in transporting exotic animals. We also have the director of
operations at the Cook Museum, Eric Miller, and
Cassie and Kelly, who are going to be
taking care of the turtle once it gets back
to the Cook Museum. It was fascinating to
see how much effort goes into rehabilitating
an injured animal. For example, Erin introduced
us to Seaweed, who'd been hit by a boat propeller. They'd been nursing it back
to health for over a year, and she explained that
turtles like to heal slowly. Seaweed will eventually be
released back into the wild, but it was time to meet the
turtle that'll be traveling back with us to Alabama. This is the first
moment the Cook Museum staff got to meet this
creature that they'll be responsible for for decades. He does get pretty bitey. So whenever he is out, it's
best to watch his mouth. But other than that, he's a
very easy to handle turtle. He goes out. I don't know how
familiar you guys were with the Kemp's ridley
stress pose, where they just kind of sit like Superman. He does that pretty much
whenever he's pulled. DESTIN: Erin had spent
so much time learning about every little
need that Kale had. And she was trying to do
a data download and give all that information
to Cassie and Kelly right there in the moment. --of a lot of ridleys we
see when they get stressed. So he gets that pink flush. OK. So he does that very
quickly, but it also goes away very quickly. DESTIN: After the
initial meeting, a more detailed data
download was necessary, because Kale is what's
called a non-releasable case. Kale has a wound on the throat
that didn't heal properly. And Erin and Chelsea removed
Kale from the tank here, and they're going
to do an inspection and show Dr. Keller
everything about Kale's wound. I'm going to let this
part of the video just play so you can experience
learning all this stuff just like we did. ERIN: And if someone wouldn't
mind taking that tunnel down, just setting it on
the floor for me. There we go. Awesome. Thank you, guys. All right. Get a view of his fistula. You can see from the outside. You can barely tell
it's even there. Yeah. So does it communicate
all the way through to the-- It does. --esophagus? Yep. DESTIN: Kale has what's
called a fistula, which is an abnormal connection
between two different body parts. In this particular
case, it's a connection from the outside of the body
all the way into the esophagus. That what you
need to see, Doc? Yep. OK. OK. So I was just going to
show one of the things. This is just saline. We've been flushing it. So you guys might be able to
kind of see how it goes up. Some of it will come out, and
then when I drop his head, some more is going to
come out of his mouth. How often are you
doing that, Erin? We were doing it weekly. I think we're doing it at
least every other week. But our vet will try and
do it when she has him out. DESTIN: So what
did you see there? Well, basically,
what she's referring to is where the initial injury was. And as it penetrates down
through and didn't completely heal, it walled
off that fistula, that draining tract between the
outside air and his esophagus, right? Am I summarizing
that properly, Erin? Yeah. And so that's
the only thing that is of some concern is that if he
were in a release situation out in the wild, he could develop
some sort of complication associated with that. DESTIN: And so is that the
reason Kale can't be released? Mm-hmm. DESTIN: Can you explain
that just briefly? What could happen If
Kale were released? It's just one of
those, in good faith, we cannot say that he won't
develop some kind of abscess from debris or something
getting stuck in that, therefore future hindering
feeding and therefore maybe leading to a prolonged, slow
death that we don't want to see. So just because we haven't
monitored this long enough, we don't know what his future
looks like with that track still there. DESTIN: And so
that's why you would look for a long-term facility
like the Cook Museum? Yep, exactly. DESTIN: Got it. So this is a normal
thing for you guys. You do this sort of
thing all the time? Actually, we've placed two
turtles since I've been here. So it's not too normal. But it's good to know that
there are great partners out there for when
we do have animals that we can't, in good faith,
release back to the wild. DESTIN: So this is a big deal. It is, yeah. DESTIN: That's awesome. Here we go. Yep. So a lot of times, when
we're doing the cleaning, this is how we'll hold him. And you can get a
really good view here and usually just having
somebody support his head. But sometimes she
would go in there and debride some of that
fibrous material out, as well. DESTIN: This is the
underlying issue right here. So it's a fistula? ERIN: Mm-hmm. DESTIN: And who did the surgery? This was Dr.
McNaughton with our team. It was a hook removal surgery. And then we did, actually,
three surgical repairs in attempt to close it,
all of which failed. [INAUDIBLE] Thank you. DESTIN: Do you
know how old he is? Do not know how old he is. He's a young juvenile. We typically give age
classes, because the only way to really know how
old they are is to cut their humeral
bone in half. I don't want to do that to him. [LAUGHS] DESTIN: Yeah. But you do know he's a male. We actually don't know. I use "he" and "she"
interchangeably. It depends on the day. So the only way to tell is if
they're at a certain age class, you can do an ultrasound. But because he's younger,
we probably wouldn't even see that on ultrasound. You can also do
testosterone testing to measure those levels. But externally, it's harder
to tell when they're-- DESTIN: Because their genitalia,
it's all internal genitalia? When they're full-grown adult,
they'll have an elongated tail. You can also tell where the
vent placement on the tail is if it's male or female. But again, because
he or she is younger, it's harder to tell externally. So this is a
pretty big moment. Erin is about to tag Kale. Is that the correct terminology? Yeah. DESTIN: OK. And can you just explain
what's about to happen? Yep. So we're going to
give him a pit tag. It's similar to a
dog or cat microchip. It's going to go right into
the muscle of his left tricep. It looks like a fairly
large-gauge needle, but they might
react a little bit. But it doesn't cause that
much discomfort for them. They often go back to using
that flipper the second we put them back in the water. And it'll allow
anybody with a scanner similar to one of these to
just pass it over and get his unique
identification number. DESTIN: And this is a standard
thing in marine biology? ERIN: Yeah, we will do
it with any turtle that leaves our facility. DESTIN: Got it. ERIN: We'll actually also do
external flipper tags, as well, for a quick ID in the wild. DESTIN: So does it
have a number or-- It does. Yup, so you will scan it. You can actually see
here the unique number associated with this one. And if I were to scan the
thing, the tag will come up. So that would happen once it
was in his flipper, as well. DESTIN: So that would
come up right there. ERIN: Mm-hmm. DESTIN: Awesome. ERIN: And then you can match
it back to the unique number that-- DESTIN: So there's a
database somewhere. There is, yeah. OK, this is Chelsea. And it's my understanding
that you named Kale. I did. So I was really excited about
our veggie naming theme. And kale is my
favorite vegetable, and I always make sure that
everybody eats their kale. So that is how
Kale got his name. DESTIN: So what do you mean
the veggie naming theme? So all of our hooked
turtles for 2019 were named after veggies. We try to keep things in a
theme so we can understand their initial cause of
strand, so 2019 was vegetables for our hooked turtles. DESTIN: I'm noticing
on the wall behind you all these turtles
that have been named. You have, like-- it looks
like 2014, 2015-- no, 2014 seems to be
superheroes or-- Yeah, superheroes
and villains. We've had some
fun naming themes. We've had flowers. It just makes things fun
a little bit for us-- it can be a really
stressful time when we've got a lot of
patients-- and one thing that we get to personalize
with the turtles. DESTIN: It sounds
like the Cook Museum kind of won out with
Kale, because they could have a turtle named Broccoli. They were very close to that. Yeah. [LAUGHS] DESTIN: Thank you for
all you do, Chelsea. Absolutely. You're welcome. ERIN: So that's typical
Kale back in the water. He'll hold that for a little
bit and then all of a sudden snap out of it and swim off. Sometimes if you want him to
get out of it a little sooner, you just tickle the
rear flippers back here. There you go. It's a good motivation
to start swimming. So Kale was hooked at one of our
local fishing piers, I believe, in May of 2019. It was a rather
large hook fairly far down in the esophagus. So we attempted removal just
going through the oral cavity, and no luck. We attempted with an
endoscope, no luck. So we ended up having to
do an esophagostomy, so an incision through
the esophagus to be able to remove that hook. DESTIN: Wow. That's amazing. That looks like it hurt. So otherwise, he's an
incredibly healthy turtle with the exception
of that straw, essentially, in his
neck, unfortunately. DESTIN: So after Kale was
safely back in his tank, we got a plan together
on how we were going to leave out in the morning. Immediately after getting
back to the hotel, though, we got a phone call saying
that a fisherman nearby had hooked a turtle. Virginia has a
really cool program called the Pier Partner Program. When I got to the
pier, I went out and tried to find the
fisherman immediately. He explained that he
accidentally hooked a turtle. He actually called the
phone number and said, hey, I've got a problem here. And that's when the
pier manager helped him bring the turtle up
to the pier with a net so that it wouldn't
hurt the turtle. Aw. My name's Destin, man. Paul. DESTIN: So Paul, how did
they know to call you? When the phone number
rings, is that you? Well, when they call the
number, the Stranding Response team, they get the call. And my boss calls me. And then I'm usually
the one here. And she'll say, hey, you know,
there's a turtle down there. Could you go get the turtle? I mean, we got a
procedure and everything of how we get the turtle. DESTIN: What's up, Chelsea? Hey again. Long time no see. DESTIN: Hello. [LAUGHTER] I was really excited that we got
there early enough to see this, because it was a very
encouraging thing to me. Every single human involved
in this whole process loves these animals, and
they want them to survive. I mean, just look at this. You have people passing
by on the street stopping to make sure this animal's OK. You have fishermen,
government officials. You have us from Alabama. Everyone's rooting
for this turtle, and they are united in their
efforts to try to save it. Here to take up the
turtle at 5:30 AM. Here we go. You've done this before, right? Yeah, I've done it before. I've never done it with
a turtle this small, so it's a little bit
different for me. But basically,
what we're planning to do this morning
is sort of prepare the animal for the trip. They like to put Vaseline
and some lubricants on there to keep the
skin from drying. In addition, they're going
to run some fluids on him so that he's prepared
for the long trip and doesn't have to worry
about the ingestion of water. Going to put fluids in him. We're putting fluids? Good. Fluids? Yes. Didn't know this
was happening. Why are you cleaning
right there? ERIN: So that's where he's
going to get his fluids. They kind of get them in
their shoulder region. He's going to give
it subcutaneously. OK, that's not
something I was expecting. Interesting. So how much fluid
are you putting in? He's going to
get about 140 mils. DESTIN: Erin got Kale's
last measurements before leaving the facility
and also applied eye and skin lubricant. Dr. McNaughton, who
performed Kale's surgeries, was on hand to give the
history to Dr. Keller and also provide the background
on all the medical treatment that she's used
up to this point. So Dr. McNaughton, how
do you feel about this? Is this an interesting moment? I'm really excited. And Kale's, uh-- we've
been a long road with Kale, but we're really excited
that this turtle is going to have a forever home
and be able to teach so many people about his
species and about the things like the experiences
he went through. Interactions with
fisheries is common, so to be able to tell this
story and share it with all the guests would be wonderful. DESTIN: Is that
for us or for Kale? [LAUGHTER] It's a snack on the ride home. DESTIN: So is this the X-ray? Yeah. So this is one of his
initial radiographs. And I say "his,"
but of course, we don't know if it's
a male or a female. And you can see the
large hook that he has and also the positioning of it. So a turtle has a plate. And the top is called--
it starts with a C-- Carapace. And the bottom is called the-- Plastron. DESTIN: Plastron. So the plastron was in the way
for everything you were doing. Yes. So that's part of what we
look at with the positioning of the hook. So you can see the outline
of where the carapace sits on this animal. And you can see the outline
of the carapace here. But there is quite
a bit of movement that we're able to have
within the esophagus. It's pretty stretchy. So I can go through the
mouth and, if we have a line, pull up the esophagus a little
bit to get access to this hook. However, once we get
past this portion, it's very hard to get access
from the oral approach to hooks in this spot. And also, the plastron
is sitting right there. So I can't just go
straight in to get it. I have to make an
incision here on the neck and then go in and
get the hook that way. So I still had to sort
of go fishing [LAUGHS] for the hook past where I could
see it from my incision line. So there was something
about probably what was happening with
the amount of trauma or inflammation in that
tissue that made it harder for Kale to heal appropriately. DESTIN: In general, do you
have a negative feeling towards people who fish? No, not at all. Because we could never
actually do this without them. It really starts with them
calling us to start with and talking to the pier
manager and saying, hey, I've accidentally
hooked a turtle. What do I need to do? So this whole program
starts with them. And so we couldn't
do that without them. We love people being out
there and enjoying the oceans and loving it just
as much as we do. And then we work
together to make sure that the turtles that
accidentally get hooked are taken care of appropriately. DESTIN: So they're big advocates
for the animals themselves. Definitely, yes. It starts with them for sure. All right. All right, that's it. Symbolic passing of the turtle. [LAUGHTER] DESTIN: OK. 12 hours from now, huh? I have to admit, this
is the first time I've ever helped moisten a
turtle in the drive-through of a Dunkin' Donuts. Is this the coffee macchiato? DESTIN: What kinds
of capabilities did you bring with you? So I could administer fluids. I can intubate. I can sedate. I can do all the
things that we're hoping we don't have to do. DESTIN: So what are the
risks you're thinking here? Very little, definitely. Yeah. DESTIN: OK. Once we started
rolling down the road, Kale started what I
thought was freaking out. But turns out he was just
trying to get comfortable. He would turn
sideways in his box, and he would put his
chin up in the air. He would just do it
over and over again. And it was concerning. But eventually, Dr. Keller
said, let him do what he wants. Let him stay comfortable. That looks like he's
going to hurt his neck. DR. KELLER: Move him
back away, and I'll bet he'll put himself right
back in that position. DESTIN: Yeah. DR. KELLER: You can
move him if you want. WOMAN: No, we haven't
moved him this whole time. DESTIN: Every so
often when we got gas, we would moisturize his skin. DR. KELLER: So if we
didn't keep him moist, he'd be just like us if we
were laying out in the hot sun and our skin became parched
and dry and became dehydrated. So this benefits him
in the long term, because I feel like he's
going to have fewer skin lesions, fewer abrasions. And quite honestly,
even his shell, which the outer layers
of which are not living, they're not vital-- it's keratin, just
like our fingernails-- that will continue a
better looking appearance and won't flake and dry like
it does if it's left totally to dry out in the air. DESTIN: After that, we'd
get back on the road, and Kale would get right
back to his position. That's what he--
[LAUGHS] there it is. Finally, after 12
hours on the road, we made it back
to Decatur, where Kale was greeted by yet another
generation of the Cook family before he made his way
to his quarantine tank. So what's the plan
now, Dr. Keller? We're going to take
him out of that tank. And we're going to give
him a fresh water bath. Salt water parasites
don't like fresh water. So we're just going
to do it briefly. Yeah, he's doing it. There it is. He's Supermanning. There you go. Easy. Easy, easy, easy, easy. That's that Superman pose. There he goes. DESTIN: So what are
you seeing right now? An animal that's
settling in pretty quickly and acting like
you would want him to act after a long transport. His buoyancy is equivalent. He's obviously using all
four limbs effectively. And he's showing very few
signs, if any, of stress from the journey. So we're really happy with
what we're seeing right now. DESTIN: So how long will
Kale stay in this facility? He'll be here
approximately two weeks. At such time, we'll be able to
monitor him and also monitor the fish that we put in
with him and make sure that there are no health
issues with either of them. And then at some point
in the future, hopefully at around two weeks,
we'll be able to move him from this very brief
quarantine into the tank that he'll be living
the rest of his days in. DESTIN: The quarantine
period seemed to go great. Cassie got this really
cool video of Kale eating some blue crab. OK, so today's the day we're
about to move Kale over to the big tank. Right, Cassie? Yes. DESTIN: OK, you excited? Yes. DESTIN: OK, I can imagine. Cool. Where do you want me, Doc? Where do I need to be? Wherever you want to be. DESTIN: OK, I'll be over here. I'll get out of the way. [MUSIC PLAYING] - You got it. I got him. Watch out, his bite. You're all right, beautiful. Ow. Ow, ow, ow. You got ointment? That was pretty exciting. Lift him up. DESTIN: Are they
lifting Kale up? Yep. 4, 3, 2, 1. Stop. DR. KELLER: There
you go, big guy. Come on. OK. All right. I'm coming down outside. OK, you can come up. DESTIN: Once Kale figured out
what plexiglass was and started to understand the
layout of the aquarium, he or she finally
decided to swim. And it was incredible to watch. This was the first time that
this injured, endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle had been able
to swim freely in over a year. I've never seen a
turtle take a nap. CHILD: He's so cute. DESTIN: What's he doing? He's adorable. He's sleeping. He's just so adorable and cute. So why do I love sea turtles? You could say it begins with
their scrappy start in life, up against such incredible
odds on their very first day. They're navigators
of vast oceans, some traveling as long as a century. They're air breathers
in water, and they're aquatic creatures on land. They're gentle. They're beautiful. They're graceful. And they're peaceful. They're swimmers and sleepers,
crawlers and diggers. They're world citizens
who always return home. It almost seems like
they're everyone's friend. Sea turtles are amazing. And I love them. I hope you enjoyed this
episode of Smarter Every Day. If you want to come see
Kale, you can do that. Come to the Cook Museum in
Decatur, Alabama, Cook Museum of Natural Science. The whole point is
life is amazing, and they have all kinds
of stuff that you can see to verify that for yourself. Anyway, I like to look
at Kale's fistula. Kale puts on quite the show. I like to watch Kale
glide through the water and think about how
the control surfaces of the fins work and all that. You got to come on down. I'll also leave a link down
in the video description to figure out how you can do
that if you're interested. You can also donate
to help feed Kale if you're interested in that. I hope you enjoyed learning
about sea turtles with me. I learned a lot in a
short amount of time. They are a beautiful,
beautiful animal. I hope you feel that way, too. Anyway, feel free to
subscribe if you're into that. Not a big deal. I'm Destin getting
Smarter Every Day. Have a good one. Bye.
Thought this would be a little too long for my 4 and 9 year old daughters, but they loved it!
This is one of the best things I have ever seen. I truly found myself become attached to Kale even though I had only just learned who s/he is. Honestly was pretty profound
Can't wait to watch it! The first Smarter Every Day movie!
I'm curious if Kale kept facing 'sideways' in the tub because it positioned him to feel like he was moving forward, as in the direction the van was traveling. It seems like every time he turns in the video, he pointed his head towards the front of the van.
Me too. Sea turtle lover.
You're an inspiration Destin!
Ahhhhh this video is great! It hit me exactly where it needed to--I used to work in sea turtle rehabilitation back when I was in college and I've been missing it a lot lately due to these magnificent quarantine times we're living in. This reminded me of a lot of the stuff that I used to do, such a cool watch!
Literally learned so much during this.
My fiancé and I have been talking about these turtles for an hour now. And trying to learn more things we aren’t sure about.
So happy to learn more about her favorite creatures and bond even more.
Dude this was the best video you’ve posted since the interview with Obama. I loved your opening quote about how you’re going to learn with us, and let the experts share their knowledge. We need more of that school of thought in the world today. Thank you.