Aquarium releases 24 sea turtles in N. Carolina
Months after washing up in Cape Cod Bay, two dozen sea turtles have returned to the ocean in North Carolina after receiving rehabilitative care from the New England Aquarium.
On Monday, biologists brought the turtles to Fort Fisher, N.C., and released them as a crowd of onlookers gathered on the beach, the aquarium said.
“This is the best time of the year for us,” Adam Kennedy, the aquarium’s director of rescue and rehabilitation, said in a statement.
The 24 turtles were treated at the aquarium’s Turtle Hospital in Quincy for pneumonia, dehydration, and bone fractures after stranding season, the aquarium said. From November to January, turtles that are stunned by the cold wash up on the shore of Cape Cod Bay when the water temperature plummets in the winter.
The warmer waters of North Carolina will help the turtles reacclimate, scientists said.
“The majority of the cold-stunned sea turtles that come to our hospital have a poor prognosis, but as they progress in their rehabilitation, you see them really start to get their spark back,” said Alessia Brugnara, a rescue biologist. “Working with these turtles from the moment they come in off the frigid Cape Cod beaches, and seeing them swim away in the ocean, gives my job purpose.”
Twenty-three of the released turtles were Kemp’s ridleys, a critically endangered species, and one was a green sea turtle, according to the aquarium.
The number of turtles washing up in Massachusetts has increased steadily over the past two decades. In 2000, about 50 turtles were reported stranded. In 2022, there were about 900, officials said. Scientists estimate that thousands of turtles will be stranded annually by 2031, according to the aquarium.
While the cause is difficult to pinpoint, it is driven in part by the warming of the Gulf of Maine and unpredictable weather phenomena.
This year, the Quincy hospital treated 518 turtles, the aquarium said. The rest of the turtles will be released in the summer off the waters of Nantucket Sound.
“Getting the turtles back to their ocean home is why we do this, in hopes that each one of these turtles helps their population bounce back from the possibility of extinction,” Kennedy said.