This just in:
The New England Aquarium has a new sea turtle, and last week the public was invited to suggest names for this highly endangered Kemp’s Ridley turtle. After more than 800 names were submitted, Aquarium staff selected six names that have made the final cut. The public now has one week to vote for their favorite name for the new sea turtle at the Aquarium’s website at www.neaq.org.
The “turtle with no name” has an inspiring story of survival. Over two years ago, this turtle was found floating off the Louisiana coast with a fractured shell and skull caused by a strike from a boat propeller. Her eye was severely injured, and her brain was visible. She was taken to the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans where a group of animal rehabilitation staff began work on her but did not expect that she would make it. Too injured and thin to undergo surgery, they fed her a gruel of crab, squid, fish and clams through a tube three times a day for several weeks. Once more robust and stable, she underwent surgery and had her shell repaired with metal plates.
Two years later, she is as healthy as can be hoped for, but she is blind in one eye with poor hunting skills. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has certified that she would not be able to survive if released back to the wild. Instead, she will launch a career in marine education as millions of human visitors will see her in the Aquarium’s huge and stunning Caribbean coral reef exhibit that features four other sea turtles and 150 other species of sea creatures.
This sea turtle has likely been to Massachusetts before! Kemps hatch on beaches in the western Gulf of Mexico. However, many of these juvenile sea turtles visit the waters south of Cape Cod in the summer to feed on crabs.
