48 cold stunned sea turtles since Christmas Day. Just where do we put all of them?
When space is filled in our small rehab center, we take over some room in the Aquarium quarantine facility. When we have a crisis event that brings in large numbers of turtles we turn to anything that will hold water!
Turtles are grouped and placed in tanks and containers based on health status, medication needs, activity levels, and size.
With so many turtles stranding in such a short period of time, it takes a lot of effort and space to make them all comfortable. When we have such a full house we rely heavily on our partners in rehabilitation to ease the load. Luckily, the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center was able to admit 8 patients over the last 2 weeks. On Thursday, the South Carolina Aquarium Sea Turtle Rescue took 3 loggerhead patients off our hands. A huge thanks to the sea turtle rehab community!
Great news!! After examination of bloodwork, radiographs, activity, and feeding bahavior, we were able to release 9 turtles on Friday, thanks to the Ft. Macon Coast Guard. Some of these turtles have been introduced in the blog. Think happy swimming thoughts for El, Billie, Grinch, and Joy, as well as 5 of our new admissions that were healthy and gone so quickly they weren’t shown here.