Things are going well for our cold-stunned turtles that were rescued in November and December. We have recently opened several new pools in our Sea Turtle Recovery Room [The space that housed the Sea Turtle Recovery Room is now The Trust Family Foundation Shark and Ray Touch Tank. Rescued sea turtles are now cared for at the new, much larger Animal Care Clinic in Quincy.], so we have space for more turtles. Yesterday we received three turtles back from the University of New England Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center. These three turtles (two Kemp's ridley and one green turtle) were found stranded on Cape Cod beaches, and were transported to New England Aquarium for emergency care.

After several days of care, the turtles' condition had improved, so we coordinated with our colleagues at University of New England to transfer the animals to their facility for further care. This gave us more space to accept additional stranded turtles from Cape Cod. Now that the stranding season is over (our last turtle was stranded in late December), we have room to accept turtles back to the Aquarium to complete their rehabilitation. The turtles will likely remain with us until July or August, when they will be released to the wild.

The photo above shows the new green turtle, named Goose. Green turtles are very beautiful. They differ from Kemp's ridley turtles in that they enjoy eating plant material. We thank the staff and students of the University of New England for their assistance, and for the excellent care they provided to these turtles.

-Dr. Innis