Orion, a Kemp's Ridley sea turtle and the last of our in-house 2008 cold stunned animals, made its way back into the Atlantic Ocean yesterday.

The last CT scan on the turtle showed improvement to the lung which had a severe pneumonia. Orion has been eating and swimming well for awhile. After a final exam the turtle was deemed able to be released.

With the colder months approaching, we decided to bring Orion a little further south than the others that we released at the end of August. So we loaded the turtle up early yesterday morning and drove down to Long Island to release Orion back into the Atlantic Ocean. This will give Orion a slight advantage over Goose who, at this time, is getting closer to leaving Long Island Sound and Orion should be in about the same area as the other Ridleys we released from Dowse's Beach.

We were able to release the turtle with the help of our colleagues at The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation. We helped kick off their beach cleaning effort on International Beach Cleanup Day at Ponqougue Beach in Hampton Bays.