Zoo Miami takes in 8 ‘cold-stunned’ sea turtles from Massachusetts

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The tough winter situations up north might be vital to sea turtles’ well being, leaving them “cold-stunned” and incapacitated, which is why Zoo Miami helps some sea turtles in danger.

In accordance with a press launch from the zoo, which opened its Sea Turtle Hospital earlier this 12 months, it obtained eight Kemp’s ridley sea turtles from Massachusetts Friday afternoon.

The juvenile sea turtles have been flown to Miami Government Airport on a aircraft supplied by a company known as “Turtles Fly Too.”

They got here from the Nationwide Marine Life Middle in Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts.

They every weigh between roughly 3 and seven kilos and have been “picked up by Zoo Miami officers on the airport and transported the quick distance again to the zoo the place they have been individually examined and positioned into restoration tanks on the Zoo Miami Sea Turtle Hospital,” the press launch said.

In accordance with zoo officers, the turtles are every affected by totally different ranges of a wide range of points, from dehydration and emaciation to swollen eyes and abrasions.

“The Animal Well being Crew will be capable of make a greater evaluation of their situation over the following few days as they acclimate to their new environment,” the information launch said.

Zoo officers hope to finally be capable of launch the ocean turtles into the wild.

“The Kemp’s ridley turtle is the world’s most endangered and smallest species of sea turtle with a shell size not often exceeding two toes and weighing as much as 100 kilos,” the information launch said. “They’re discovered from the Gulf of Mexico all the way in which up the jap seaboard to Nova Scotia the place they feed totally on crabs and different shellfish. Unlawful harvesting of their eggs and getting caught in nets are the primary causes for his or her critically endangered standing.”