. The Canadian field-naturalist. 580 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 118. Figure 2. Juvenile Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) found in Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia, on 8 August 1999. was considered unusual by the inshore commercial fishers who encountered it because they had never seen a cheloniid turtle before. Therefore, they collected it and brought it to shore for examination. One of us (MCJ) responded to the report and exam- ined the turtle (CCL 34 cm; mass kg), tentatively identifying it as a juvenile C. mydas. The plastron of the turtle was cream coloured, the cutting edge of the lo
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 580 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 118. Figure 2. Juvenile Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) found in Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia, on 8 August 1999. was considered unusual by the inshore commercial fishers who encountered it because they had never seen a cheloniid turtle before. Therefore, they collected it and brought it to shore for examination. One of us (MCJ) responded to the report and exam- ined the turtle (CCL 34 cm; mass kg), tentatively identifying it as a juvenile C. mydas. The plastron of the turtle was cream coloured, the cutting edge of the lower tomium was mildly serrated, and it had a pair of large prefrontal scutes on its head (Figure 3), all features characteristic of a Green Turtle. However, while the number and arrangement of carapacial scutes was consistent with those of a Green Tuitle, there were two claws on the anterior margin of each front flipper, the costal and vertebral scutes overlapped con- siderably, and the marginal scutes were strongly ser- rated (Figure 3), which suggested that the turtle was possibly a hybrid. At the time of examination, the turtle's movements were sluggish and it was judged to be mildly hypother- mic. Small juvenile cheloniid turtles foraging in coastal areas of the temperate north Atlantic in the fall are particularly vulnerable to developing hypothermia, as water temperatures can rapidly drop below 20°C (Dav- enport 1997). This animal was recovered from an area where the sea surface temperature was °C. Given the turtle's compromised physical condition and the declining water temperatures along the coast of Nova Scotia, the turtle was moved to the animal care facili- ties at Dalhousie University in Halifax, where it was warmed and rehydrated for approximately 60 hours in a freshwater bath at 24°C. It was then transported south by air on the evening of 4 October 2001 for release in Bermudian waters. Subsequent genetic analysis at the National Marine Fisheries Labora
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