Bubbles Is Released on Poplar Island

Thanks to Ms. Musgrave, WLMS was selected, for the second year in a row by the National Aquarium, to raise a Diamondback turtle hatchling. Some of our 6th grade students had the opportunity to study this year's turtle, named Bubbles, for approximately 8 months. As you might imagine, Bubbles became a celebrity with our sixth graders because Bubbles was so much fun to watch as it grew and played.

The National Aquarium asked our students to study the hatchling to try and discover when the sex of the reptile would be determined and at what water temperature. Our students tracked various data points each day and provided food and shelter for this wonderful little creature. About a month ago, we determined that Bubbles was a girl.

Earlier this month, the turtle was released on Poplar Island by several of our students. Poplar Island is a large scale ecological restoration project where dredged material is being used to reconstruct an eroded island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. During the past 100 years the island has eroded and only three small (4 hectares) islands remained. Over the past 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers has built a stone-covered dike perimeter that is being filled with dredged material from the Baltimore Harbor to restore the island. In addition, the National Aquarium and other scientific organizations are helping to repopulate the island with wildlife and native plants that existed on Poplar Island before it eroded.

Here are some movies taken by our students as they released Bubbles into her natural environment on Poplar Island.