"Cold-stunned" sea turtles arrive at Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium for rehabilitation
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Seven sea turtles have arrived at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium to begin rehabilitation with the hope of returning to the ocean.
Pilots flew the turtles in from the New England Aquarium, the Pittsburgh Zoo said in a Facebook post on Thursday. The turtles were stranded on the coast of Cape Cod after they became "cold-stunned."
Over the next couple of months, the turtles will be receiving rehabilitation through the Pittsburgh Zoo's Sea Turtle Second Chance program. The hope is that they'll eventually be released back into the ocean.
While many people may associate sea turtles with tropical waters, the New England conservation organization Mass Audubon says every summer, hundreds of turtles make their way up to Massachusetts and the Gulf of Maine to feed in the nutrient-rich waters.
Since sea turtles are reptiles and their body temperature is mostly regulated by the water's temperature, they start to swim south in the fall, but some of them get stuck on the hooked shape of Cape Cod, while others just don't swim fast enough. This causes them to become "cold-stunned," Mass Audubon explains, meaning they can't eat or swim.
The Pittsburgh Zoo's sea turtle rehabilitation center in the aquarium has been rescuing and rehabilitating sea turtles every year for over a decade. The most recent group of turtles to return to the ocean arrived at the program in December of 2022. They were released in St. Augustine, Florida, in February. It took them only 15 minutes to find their way back to the sea, but the zoo says, "despite the short goodbye, the turtle recovery and release remains inspiring to see."
