GULFPORT, MS (AP) — Scores of endangered turtles have been brought from Massachusetts to the Gulf Coast to Gulfport to be rehabilitated and eventually released into the wild.
Unusually cold weather has caused hundreds of cold-stunned young Kemp's ridley sea turtles to wash up on Massachusetts beaches since November. The condition can be fatal.
The Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans says it received 27 of the turtles on Monday.
The Sun Herald’s Regina Zilbermints reports the New England Aquarium Marine Animal Rescue team was sending 85 turtles through the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport. Thirty are at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport and others were going to Gulf World in Panama City, Florida.
Many juvenile Kemp's ridleys live in shallow Gulf waters, including the Mississippi Sound.
