MARSHFIELD, MASS. (WHDH) - Dozens of cold-stunned sea turtles will soon be transported from the New England Aquarium to secondary rehabilitation facilities in New York, New Jersey, and Florida to make room for new arrivals.
The nonprofit organization Turtles Fly Too will be flying 71 turtles from the New England Aquarium and eight from National Marine Life Center out of the Marshfield Municipal Airport on Friday morning.
The New England Aquarium says hundreds of cold-stunned sea turtles wash up on the beaches of Cape Cod each year.
Because of the rapidly changing water temperature and wind pattern, many turtles cannot escape the hook-like area of Cape Cod Bay before becoming hypothermic.
Staff and volunteers with Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary walk the beaches looking for stranded turtles that are then transported to the Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital for medical care. Once the turtles are stabilized, the aquarium’s veterinarians clear them for travel to a secondary rehabilitation facility, working with Turtles Fly Too and NOAA to identify rehabilitation centers across the country that can accept the turtles and transport them.
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