A turtle called Condron

Condron the turtle (or friend). Photo courtesy of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.

I was lucky enough to spend the past few days snorkeling in the sea around Hawaii, swimming with green sea turtles and fish of all colors and sizes and seeing wonderful coral. It was like being right inside an aquarium. Which gives me the perfect excuse to write a blog post about a turtle called Condron!

Condron is a juvenile Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle that got stranded on South Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, on April 21, 2013.  He (or maybe she?) was rehabbed by the wonderful folks at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, Georgia, and was released back into the sea in Ponte Vedra on August 9, 2013.

And why is a turtle called Condron? Well, Condron was named after the person who found this turtle stranded on the beach. They have done a lot for the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, and so the turtle was named in their honor. I’m not going to speculate who that person is, but if they want to respond to this blog that would be great!

It turns out that this isn’t the first time that Condron has spent time with humans. Condron already had a transponder tag, and after a bit of searching it was discovered that Condron’s name used to be “Little Sunny”, and he/she was rehabbed over the winter of 2010 at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island, North Carolina.

I am indebted to Kristin at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for information about Condron the turtle. And if you are a CONDR*N in the Florida/Georgia area, it would be great to hear from you. As usual, you can leave a comment or email me at condran[AT]one-name.org (replace the [AT] with an @).