Class Unexpectedly Gets to Assist with Cold-Stunned Turtles

Earlier this month 18 NC State University veterinary students participated in a week-long course on invertebrate medicine at the NC State University Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST).  The course, taught by Dr. Gregory Lewbart, professor of aquatic, wildlife, and zoological medicine, surveys invertebrate groups and emphasizes their functional biology, phylogeny, ecology, and behavior.  The lab portion typically takes an experimental approach and primarily involves working with live material.  

In addition to learning the traditional content for the invertebrate medicine course, the students had the opportunity to help with admissions, sorting, blood collection and treatment of 35 sea turtles that cold-stunned in New England and were transported by air to coastal North Carolina (courtesy of “Turtles Fly Too”). Roughly half of the turtles were sent from CMAST to the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and the others to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation Center in Topsail for further rehabilitation.