Long Island Sound

Sea Turtle Release Trip

Turtles took center stage several times during the summer discovery program with one of two turtle-related field trips to Long Island’s Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation. This group protects and preserves marine environment through education, research, rescue and rehabilitation. For this hands-on experience, students traveled to eastern Long Island to witness a tracking device being attached to a rehabilitated sea turtle shortly before it was released into the Atlantic Ocean. Linked to the Argos satellite, data showed the turtle’s movements while the students learned to use GPS to better collect statistics and record these movements. They also considered the bigger picture, how water from our backyard Housatonic watershed (Great Hollow Nature Preserve among others) finds its way to Long Island Sound, then to the Atlantic Ocean, and to the marine environment that supported this very sea turtle.

While in Riverhead, students also visited the Long island Aquarium and Exhibition Center