Friday, December 30, 2011

Rested & Recovered, Globe-Trotting Turtle Returns to Sea

A world-traveling sea turtle found stranded in the Netherlands is back home in the Gulf of Mexico today (Dec. 27) after three long years of rest and rehabilitation.


The animal, an endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle, was found frigid and near-dead off the coast of the Netherlands in 2008, thousands of miles from the Gulf waters these turtles call home. It was dubbed Johnny Vasco de Gama by its European rescuers.

Marine biologists suspect Johnny became caught in cold currents and was "cold-stunned," a condition that shuts down internal organs and can kill sea turtles. Staff members of the Rotterdam Zoo stabilized the ailing turtle and sent him to the Oceanário de Lisboa aquarium in Portugal the following summer.

Read more at:
http://www.livescience.com/17645-globe-trotting-turtle-released.html

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