Ranger, ICie, Banks and Wiggles will be laid to rest next week in an environment that will be both familiar and strange.

For the familiar part, the four sea turtles will be buried at sea on April 20. For the rest, their cremated remains will be encased in concrete as part of a reef ball.

They will be joining Dare, a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle whose remains were treated this way when she died in 2005. She initiated what has come to be known as Dare’s Reef off the coast of Topsail Island and Wrightsville Beach.

Reef balls and other similar materials are placed on the ocean floor to attract and protect fish. The artificial reefs foster new marine growth and help replenish the world’s diminishing natural reef systems.

Suffering from illness or injury, Ranger, ICie, Banks and Wiggles all received care at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City but were unable to recover. All four died within the past year.

Dare’s Reef is not just for sea turtles.

Ashes from the human cremations have also been incorporated into concrete reef balls laid at that and other sites. Along with the four turtles, human ashes will be incorporated into the concrete of about a half-dozen other reef balls for placement on Dare’s Reef. All the reef balls will be poured on April 17, unveiled on April 19, and placed on the reef the following day.

Article retrieved from JDN News   https://www.jdnews.com/news/local/remains-of-turtles-humans-to-help-bulk-up-reef-1.465078?page=0

The History of Dare  https://www.seaturtlehospital.org