Critically endangered sea turtle, Clark, rescued on Navarre Pier

One lucky member of the world's most endangered species of sea turtles should see plenty more tomorrows after a scary situation at Navarre Beach Fishing Pier on Friday.

A relatively new, do-it-yourself system known as the Responsible Pier Initiative worked wonders in the case of Clark, the Kemp's ridley sea turtle. The juvenile turtle was hooked in the mouth but then rescued by the same fisherman around noon Friday.

Less than four years ago, the Loggerhead Marine Life Center in South Florida helped jump-start the Pier Initiative, which is now intact along seven piers in the Panhandle and helps educate fishermen on what to do once they accidentally hook a sea turtle, as well as how to safely rescue them.

Jim Holmes, a member of both the Pier Initiative in Navarre and the Santa Rosa County-funded Sea Turtle Patrol, got a call from the Navarre Pier shortly after the juvenile Kemp's ridley was caught. Holmes helped facilitate Clark's transportation to the Gulfarium CARE center Friday in Okaloosa County, where the sea turtle is said to be doing well.

"Clark arrived at the CARE center, took an intake exam with X-rays, and we are now pleased to say he has no hooks or monofilament in him, internal or external," said Meredith Horn, director of marketing and communications at the Gulfarium. "Clark is doing great. He has great body composition, great weight on him, and the next plan from here will be to touch base with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to prepare his release."

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Clark weighs about 8 pounds and is roughly 1.5 feet long. He did not need surgery, but does have wounds on both of his hind flippers, and the ends of his flippers are actually missing, according to Horn. Still, he's expected to be released from the Gulfarium very soon.

Horn said the Pier Initiative and the fisherman who inadvertently hooked Clark made all the right decisions after the fact to ensure Clark's suffering was minimal.

"When a sea turtle is unintentionally hooked, the right thing to do is call FWC, not just cut the line, because there is typically a good chance more hooks have been ingested that we need to take care of," Horn said.

A former air traffic controller, Holmes said he has helped rescue sea turtles for the past 10 years. He believes the Pier Initiative system is an intuitive one.

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"Any time a sea turtle is hooked, there's instructions on how to bring them in, net them and get them up to the surface if they're too big," Holmes said. "Also how to try to bring them toward the shore so we can capture them there on the shoreline if they're too big to come up in a net. And any time a fisherman catches them, we have signs all along the pier on what to do and how to contact the pier or FWC. And once they contact us, we respond."

Many Kemp's ridleys — the world's smallest species of sea turtle — call the Gulf of Mexico home. Their population began to decline sharply in the late 1940s when their eggs became a trendy food harvest. When nesting beaches were afforded official protection in 1966, the egg collection threat was neutralized, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Kemp's ridleys population and level of endangerment have fluctuated over the years. More than 600 Kemp's ridleys died as a result of the BP oil spill in 2010, according to the Endangered Species Coalition.

Playing a role in Clark's rescue meant a lot to Holmes, who said he has tracked the species closely for years but never found a living one until last week.

"The pier did a great job. There's not that many nesting females left in the world," Holmes said. "The only Kemp's I have found in the last 10 years since I've been doing this were all dead, usually wrapped in fishing line and hooks and things like that. So this was great. It was pretty exciting."

Jake Newby can be reached at jnewby@pnj.com or 850-435-8538.