A Sick Sea Turtle

By Baylee Browning
Collections & Exhibits Associate

A taxidermy Hawksbill Sea Turtle. Over the summer our education team noticed that the beak was falling off! These things can happen, this taxidermy is at least fifty five years old!

Hello, my name is Baylee. I am the Collections and Exhibits Associate here at the Whaling Museum. Museums are stewards of our collective history, and many of our stories are shared through artifacts in exhibits and educational programming. My job is to take care of all of the old stuff in the museum because I want them to last for a very long time. Did you know that only a very small percentage of our collections and archives are on display?!  We have a lot of objects in our collection, from whaling tools to works of art. We only have one taxidermy, have you seen it? This is a Hawksbill Turtle. Hawksbill Turtles are a tropical species with a distinctive hooked beak especially designed to help them eat their favorite snack, sea sponges! This species was put on the ESA endangered species list in 1970 because they were hunted for their beautiful shells.

This taxidermy was donated to the museum in 2016, it has been greeting visitors from its net ever since. Over the summer our education team noticed that the turtle's beak was coming loose. In order to care for the turtle we reached out to Rachael Arenstein, a conservator who specializes in taxidermy pieces.

Rachael and Anne working on the Museum's taxidermy turtle. There was a lot of debris in the head, so they used tweezers, quills, and cotton swabs to gently clean it away.

​In September Rachael and her coworker Anne King came to give the turtle a check up and stabilize it for display. The Whaling Museum’s collections team was present as well. Working like a team in the operating room, the four of us removed the turtle from the net and placed it shell side up on an “operating” table. Rachael and Anne were able to see something we could not from the ground. Our poor turtle was infested with a destructive ​museum pest!

Debris pulled from the head cavity.

Thankfully the infestation was old. Rachael and Anne, working carefully with brushes and tweezers, discovered that the beak had come loose because the soft tissues and keratinous material had been eaten away by these hungry critters. After examining some insect casings found in our turtle’s head the conservation team determined that the culprit was likely the Varied Carpet Beetle, a common house and museum pest. This beetle belongs to the Dermestidae family, which gets its name from their snacking habits. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the name derives from Greek dermestes (skin eater) and edmenai (to eat). As they grow, these skin eating beetles feast on organic materials from fibers to soft tissues, making them a serious threat to many museum collections, not just taxidermy specimens. Thankfully for our turtle, the beetles living within the shell had died long ago. Unfortunately they left quite the trail in their wake.

Debris pulled from the head cavity.

The varied carpet beetle, a common household insect and the likely culprit for the damage done to the turtle's beak.

I wasn't feeling my best. Take a look at my medical assessment.

​Our turtle was not looking its best. The conservation team found other points of concern. In addition to the loose beak, they found:
"A substantial amount of frass, larval casings and debris around the head, flippers, legs and tail with boring along the edge and in some cases through the shell… [T]here was no sign of live activity. Additionally frass lacquered to the ventral surface of the shell suggests that the specimen was infested at the time of preparation. The extensive pest damage to the turtle’s head destabilized the beak with cracks and breaks at several points… Several shell plates were lifting and there was minor damage to the proper right flipper. The dorsal side of the specimen was dusty and grimy with packing tape residue across the shell."
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Our turtle got a full work up and emergency stabilization. This means that the turtle was stabilized so it could safely go back on display, but in the future more work will need to be done. Displaying objects for long periods of time risks exposing them to levels of humidity, light, pollutants, and pests that can cause more damage over time. The conservators used hand-held vacuums and brushes to clean the frass from the shell and crevices. Conservators are the chemists of the museum world. They used special chemicals to safely remove grime and residue, and to adhere loose bits back to our turtle. Rachael even had a special color pallet she used to blend and hide the repairs. She did such a good job that, if I didn’t know where to look, I would not be able to see the repairs at all!

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As a small museum we do not have a conservator on staff or extensive professional training in conservation. Working together with professionals like Rachael and Anne provides us with great insight into what to look for in preserving and conserving the artifacts we care for. Professional conservation consultants also assist us in other ways, such as conducting assessments and providing reports to advise staff and support us in getting grants to support important initiatives. For example, with support from Rachael the museum received a grant for conservation supplies from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network in 2024 or 25, including this vacuum. Equipped with a HEPA filter, this vacuum has become an important member of the collections team.

​Our turtle is feeling great again thanks to Rachael and Anne. Due to time and financial constraints Rachael and Anne had to focus on stabilization and reinstallation. In the future more work will need to be done to make sure our turtle continues to greet visitors for years to come.

Images from left to right, moving clockwise:

• A conservator's painting pallet, used to mask repairs as much as possible.
• Tess, our collections intern this past fall, helping to fit the turtle back in its harness.
• Our poor turtle had to wear a bandage for a week, to allow the adhesives to set.
• "Hello there, I'm all better now!"

A lot of work was done in a short amount of time. Check out my chart!

Sources:
https://amartconservation.com/about/
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/hawksbill-turtle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varied_carpet_beetle
https://www.britannica.com/animal/dermestid-beetle