A Florida sea turtle hospital has welcomed the new arrivals.
ADVERTISEMENT13 turtles have been given new names as well as a new lease of life, as they settle into a turtle rescue hospital in Florida. They were suffering in the frigid waters of New England before being moved to one of the warmest states in the United States.
The sea turtles were rescued from an aquarium in Massachusetts where they were suffering from a condition called cold stun, which makes them hypothermic.
Now, Rudolph, Blitzen, Dasher, Dancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dreidel, Zawadi, Grinch and Elf are being cared for at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach in southern Florida.
Why did the sea turtles have to be moved?
The seven Kemp's ridley sea turtles and six of their pals were suffering from a condition known as cold stun, which make them hypothermic.
“They float at the surface, they can’t eat, they can’t dive and eventually wash up on shore,” says Marika Weber, a vet technician at Loggerhead.
She said the New England Aquarium was overwhelmed with more than 200 sea turtles experiencing cold stun. That's why 52 were sent to Florida.
In addition to the 13 sent to Juno Beach in Palm Beach County, 16 were taken to Clearwater Marine Aquarium, and the remaining turtles went to Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota and The Florida Aquarium in Tampa.
What will life be like for the sea turtles?
The turtles will continue rehabbing at the aquarium, where guests are welcome to visit and watch their journey, and eventually they will return to their natural habitat.
Florida saw a record number of sea turtle nests this year. Preliminary statistics show more than 133,840 loggerhead turtle nests, breaking the previous record set in 2016. The same is true for green turtles, with the estimate of at least 76,500 nests well above 2017 levels.
High sea turtle nest numbers also have been reported in South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia, although not all set records like Florida.
