Largo Resident Rescues Whale, Sea Turtle During Beach Walks

INDIAN SHORES, FL — A 290-pound, 8-foot stranded melon-headed whale is now recovering at SeaWorld Orlando and a newly hatched sea turtle is in the care of biologists at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium thanks to a Largo woman who takes daily walks on Indian Shores beach.

For three years during the summer sea turtle hatching season, Bonnie Charity, 61, has been waking before dawn and making the mile-long drive to Indian Shores to pick up trash along the beach.

“I started walking for exercise, but I was inspired to start picking up trash when I saw two older gentlemen doing it," said Charity. "Now I do it for my soul."

On Friday, July 20, Charity was back on the beach at 6 a.m. as usual, picking up fishing line, plastic straws, bottle caps and other litter that poses a danger to marine life when she spotted what looked like a large palm frond in the surf.

She walked toward it, intending to pull it out of the water. But as she got closer, she saw the end of the palm frond move and realized it was a live creature.

What Charity thought was a beached dolphin turned out to be a rare melon-headed whale.

“He was on his side and I could see he was really struggling,” she said.

Jason McCarty, on vacation from Indiana, spotted the whale as well and hurried to assist Charity.

“We called 911 and I just started trying to sooth him, telling him we’ve got help coming,” she said.

Emergency communications contacted the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which alerted rescue biologist Kerry Sanchez.

While waiting for Sanchez to arrive, Charity and McCarty managed to turn the whale so it was perpendicular to the beach and roll it onto its belly to keep its blow hole clear of sand.

“He seemed more comfortable when we did that and didn’t struggle as much,” Charity said.

For nearly an hour and a half, she and McCarty kneeled in the surf, splashing just splashed water on the whale, caressed it and spoke to it with a soothing voice.

“I just kept telling him, ‘It’s OK, it’s OK,’” she said.

Sanchez arrived just before 7:30 a.m. and commended Charity and McCarty on their instinctive care of the stranded whale.

"The priority is to keep them calm, get their face out of the water and keep their blowhole clear," she said, noting that’s exactly what they did.

Sanchez promptly consulted with the National Marine Fishery Services to discuss the best course of action. Ultimately, they decided to contact the marine rescue team from SeaWorld Orlando which was best equipped to transport and rehabilitate an adult male melon-headed whale.

Although native to the Gulf, melon-headed whales rarely venture out of deeper waters so it’s rare to find one so close to the beach, Sanchez said, adding that it’s only the third melon-headed whale to wash up on a Pinellas County beach in the past two years.

The SeaWorld rescue crew was able to transport the whale from the beach shortly after 10 a.m. and is doing well at the rehabilitation facility.

Charity returned home exhausted but amazed at the morning's events. She thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But she was wrong.

"I received an update that Sandy the whale is still alive," said Charity. "Hopefully, he will eventually be returned to the sea. His kind travel in large pods of 100 to 500, so I suspect he is missing his whale friends and family."

On Tuesday, Charity was back on the beach, picking up litter, when she spotted what looked like a piece of trash just ahead of her.

It was 7:30 a.m. and the sun was out. As she walked closer, she could see it was a newly hatched sea turtle.

The baby sea turtles hatch from their eggs in the dark, and the baby turtles make their way to the Gulf by the light of the moon.

“For some reason, this little guy didn’t make it to the water,” Charity said. “They can easily lose their way due to artificial lights or debris on the beach. Even a bottle cap can stop a baby turtle from finding its way to the water.”

The baby turtle wasn't moving, and Charity assumed it had died.

“Then I saw it lift its head,” she said. "I was so excited, I was shaking."

She quickly located the volunteer sea turtle patrol from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in charge of combing the beach every morning, looking for disturbed turtle nests and baby turtles in distress.

“The sea turtle patrol is amazing,” Charity said. “I videotaped them putting sand into a cooler and then placing the baby turtle inside.”

The baby turtle was taken back to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium where it will be cared for until biologists determine it’s ready to join its siblings in the ocean.

"Finding the baby sea turtle is not as rare as finding the whale, but it was a first for me," said Charity. "This was an eventful week for me."

Charity said the two experiences were a reminder of why she wakes up before dawn every day to pick up trash on the beach.

“I see amazing things every day. I love all my Florida wildlife, both large and small!,” she said. “I’m blessed to live here and be able to do this.”

Video via SeaWorld