Rare sea turtles being treated after ocean cold snap
The Citizen
Rescued Kemp’s ridley sea turtles receive care at Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Thirty endangered sea turtles rescued from the beaches of Cape Cod are now safe in New Orleans after their Thanksgiving travel plans went awry. They were being taken to a Louisiana rehabilitation center when bad weather and damage to a propeller grounded their plane in Chattanooga. Wildlife experts scrambled to find overnight homes for the turtles. They were then driven to New Orleans on Thanksgiving. (Thom Benson/Tennessee Aquarium via AP)
Rescued Kemp’s ridley sea turtles receive care at Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Thirty endangered sea turtles rescued from the beaches of Cape Cod are now safe in New Orleans after their Thanksgiving travel plans went awry. They were being taken to a Louisiana rehabilitation center when bad weather and damage to a propeller grounded their plane in Chattanooga. Wildlife experts scrambled to find overnight homes for the turtles. They were then driven to New Orleans on Thanksgiving. (Thom Benson/Tennessee Aquarium via AP)
Rescued Kemp’s ridley sea turtles receive care as they are prepared for transport at Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Thirty endangered sea turtles rescued from the beaches of Cape Cod are now safe in New Orleans after their Thanksgiving travel plans went awry. They were being taken to a Louisiana rehabilitation center when bad weather and damage to a propeller grounded their plane in Chattanooga. Wildlife experts scrambled to find overnight homes for the turtles. They were then driven to New Orleans on Thanksgiving. (Thom Benson/Tennessee Aquarium via AP)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A group of 30 endangered, rare sea turtles are being treated for hypothermia and pneumonia in Louisiana after a sudden cold spell nearly froze them in New England waters.
The Audubon Nature Institute announced this week that it took the reptiles in at a New Orleans wildlife facility.
Experts say the Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are among the world’s most endangered sea turtles.
Rescuers say they were swimming off the Massachusetts coast before Thanksgiving when the falling ocean temperatures sickened hundreds of them.
Many have been moved to wildlife centers along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts for rehabilitation.
