WALB.com News, Weather and Sports for Albany, Valdosta and Thomasville. Leading the way for South Georgia. | Sea turtles arrive on Jekyll Island
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By Brooke Kelley - bio | email
JEKYLL ISLAND, GA (WTOC) - Two sea turtles have arrived at their new home on Jekyll Island Thursday at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
In November, 2008, three endangered sea turtles were stunned in cold waters off the New England coast.
For the past year, a 95-pound loggerhead and two Kemp's ridleys turtles have been at the Marine Animal Research Center at the University of New England.
Sea turtles are cold blooded and can't regulate their body temperatures, so they get stunned when water temperatures drop quickly.
The three turtles have been suffering from hypothermia and other illnesses.
"They were cold stunned about a year ago in 2008 and they came to the New England aquarium for rehabilitation," said Michelle Kaylor, rehabilitation coordinator for the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. "What the New England aquarium is doing now, is getting ready for the cold stunning that will be happening this season, so they're trying to make more room for the turtles that will be coming in."
So Kaylor stepped in to help and over the last two days, the turtles have been on a long journey from Maine to South Carolina to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island.
The two Kemp's ridleys turtles, named Knievel and Peppermint Patty, will stay at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center until they can be released into the wild.
"The main thing we'll do is make sure they're happy, making sure they have the right nutrition, the right medications they need to get better," she said.
But Kaylor says, their rehabilitation could take months.
"Both of the Kemp's ridleys have a bunch of things going on, one has a bone infection and the other one has pneumonia, so we're just going to further care for them," said Kaylor.
The loggerhead will stay at the South Carolina Aquarium's Sea Turtle Hospital until spring to recover from a broken shell.
©2009 WTOC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.
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