The turtle hospital in the Florida Keys welcomed 25 new patients from out of state on Wednesday.
Twenty-five critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles arrived at the hospital from New England after colder-than-usual waters left them stunned.
Volunteers flew the stranded turtles to sunny Marathon to warm up and receive treatment.
The hospital manager, Bette Zirkelbach, said these turtles are ectothermic and could experience cold stunnings in water.
“Temperatures below 55 degrees water temperature, it slows down their metabolism. They get similar symptoms as a human would with hypothermia, so some of these animals are critical; They have pneumonia,” she said.
Zirkelbach added that, as a critically endangered species, these turtles may become extinct within our lifetimes.