MARATHON, Fla. — Twenty critically endangered juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were flown from New England to the subtropical Florida Keys to recover at the Marathon Turtle Hospital after being rescued from Cape Cod Bay’s frigid coastal waters.
The hospital says each turtle suffers from “cold stunning,” a hypothermic reaction that occurs when sea turtles are exposed to cold water for a prolonged time. They arrived Friday by private plane.
Hospital leaders compared the turtles to winter tourists.
“These sea turtles are at the Turtle Hospital in the Florida Keys to warm up just like the tourists that come to the Keys to warm up,” The Associated Press reports hospital manager Bette Zirkelbach said. “The Kemps ridley is the most critically endangered sea turtle in the world, so it’s important to help these little ones survive.”
The turtles were flown to the Florida Keys Marathon International Airport in collaboration with Turtles Fly Too, which is a "nonprofit group that engages general aviation pilots who donate their aircraft, fuel and time to provide emergency transportation for rescued sea turtles," the media outlet explains.
Once they arrived at the hospital, each little friend got a number marked on its shell while their weight and swimming ability were documented, AP says.
They will be at the hospital for a few months. Treatment for the turtles reportedly includes "broad-spectrum antibiotics, fluids, vitamins, a diet of mixed seafood and rehabilitation in water tanks at about 75 degrees Fahrenheit."
After the sea turtles show they are healthy enough, they will most likely be released off the Central Florida East Coast, near Cape Canaveral, AP explained.