Key Highlights
- Last year, the center welcomed another bunch of cold-stunned turtles that were released into the Atlantic months later. They are expected to remain at the facility until spring, when they'll be released into the Atlantic Ocean to make their way back to New England, said Heather Barron, chief science officer and veterinarian at Loggerhead. She said the turtles suffered from a conditioned called cold stunning, which requires treatment with antibiotics, fluids and nebulization. Cold stunning occurs in extremely frigid temperatures and causes the cold-blooded sea turtles to become lethargic and lose mobility, and Kemp's ridley, loggerhead and green sea turtles are typically affected. The turtles migrate north in the summer and many get stuck while heading south in the hooked peninsula of Cape Cod, according to a New England Aquarium fact sheet.
- As the ocean temperatures drop, the turtles become lethargic, emaciated and hypothermic.
- They begin washing ashore, where volunteers rescue them and take them to the sea turtle hospital. A number of turtles were sent to Florida to relieve overcrowding at the New England Aquarium, said Pam Bechtold Snyder, director of marketing and communications for the Boston facility.
- Most of those turtles were stranded during a strong westerly wind event on Nov.
- 28 and went through the triage process at the Boston facility, Snyder said.
