sea turtles

20 Stories

Wayward Sea Turtle Receives Improbable Rescue

Native to the US, it wound up in the Netherlands before being safely returned

(Newser) - An endangered sea turtle that was found about a year ago some 5,000 miles from its native waters has been released into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Houston Zoo. The Kemp's ridley sea turtle, named Boeier after the boat that rescued it, was found off the...

Aquarium Overwhelmed by Hundreds of Baby Sea Turtles

Sea turtle hatchlings got caught up in a storm off South Africa, leaving them sick and injured

(Newser) - An aquarium in South Africa is stretched beyond capacity after more than 500 baby sea turtles were washed up on beaches by a rare and powerful storm and rescued by members of the public. The little turtles are mostly endangered loggerheads and should be cruising the ocean, per the AP...

52 Endangered Sea Turtles With 'Cold Stun' Sent to Florida

They're rehabbing in the Sunshine State after being flown in from New England

(Newser) - Fifty-two endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles suffering from "cold stun" are rehabbing at four facilities in Florida after a flight on a private plane from the New England Aquarium in Massachusetts, the AP reports. The turtles arrived in Tampa on Tuesday, and 16 were sent to Clearwater Marine...

For Green Sea Turtles, a Big Problem: Too Many Girls
Pollution Has Unexpected
Effect on Green Sea Turtles
new study
Nov 27, 2023 11:48 AM CST

Pollution Has Unexpected Effect on Green Sea Turtles

Researchers say it's helping create too many females

(Newser) - For male green sea turtles, it's the second part of a double whammy they could ill afford. A new study suggests that ocean pollution is contributing to a serious gender imbalance—way too many females are being born and way too few males, reports Science Alert . As the Washington ...

Complex Operation Returns Sea Turtle From Wales to US

Gulf Stream carried rare Kemp's ridley sea turtle across the Atlantic in 2021

(Newser) - After all Tally has been through in the past couple of years, the VIP treatment she's receiving now seems only fair. The rare Kemp's ridley sea turtle washed up on Talacre Beach in north Wales in November 2021 after being carried over from Texas by the Gulf Stream....

Baby Turtle Survives Treacherous 4K-Mile Swim

Croga, which means 'brave' in Irish, drifted far off course, from Miami to Ireland

(Newser) - A father taking a stroll with his two daughters along the Irish coastline stumbled across what one expert is now calling an "absolute miracle." The Irish Mirror reports that the family was walking on the shore of the northwestern Mullet Peninsula in County Mayo when they came across...

Too-Familiar Refrain About Florida Turtles: 'It's a Girl'

Animal facility reports all female hatchlings for 4 years because the sand is so hot

(Newser) - Wildlife experts in Florida keeping watch on sea turtle eggs have had an easy job of late in cataloging the gender of hatchlings—they've all been girls. "Only female sea turtles for the past four years," Bette Zirkelbach, manager of the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, tells CNN...

Biologist Counting Turtles Finds These Instead

Bundles of cocaine wash up at Space Force base near Cape Canaveral

(Newser) - Florida, a place that has long had a reputation for strange goings-on, can add a tale of smugglers, sea turtles, a million dollars in drugs, and Space Force to its collection. A few weeks ago, Angy Chambers, a wildlife manager surveying sea turtle nests near Cape Canaveral found something besides...

After Oil Spill, Sea Turtles Are Fed Mayo as a Cure-All

It cleans their digestive tracts, say rescuers in Israel

(Newser) - When it comes to saving sea turtles, Israeli rescuers have discovered that mayonnaise is a miracle, per the AP . Employees at Israel's National Sea Turtle Rescue Center are treating endangered green sea turtles affected by a devastating oil spill that has coated Israel's coast with thick black tar....

Texans Are Rescuing Cold-Stunned Sea Turtles

Thousands have been brought to a convention center

(Newser) - Residents, some of whom lack heat or basic amenities in their own homes due to the unusually chilly weather, have been rescuing cold-stunned sea turtles and taking them to a convention center in a south Texas resort town. "Every 15 minutes or less there’s another truck or SUV...

With Tourists Gone, Record Number of Baby Turtles Hatch

In Mexican community, locals released 2,250-plus hatchlings into the sea; usually it's less than 1,000

(Newser) - The plight of the sea turtle in Mexico is so perilous that the country banned capturing and killing them 30 years ago. From late spring to early fall, one particularly vulnerable species lays its eggs on beaches throughout the nation, with nesting often disrupted by fishermen and tourists. This year,...

190 Turtles Freeze to Death
190 Turtles Freeze to Death
Nov 25, 2018 5:15 PM CST

190 Turtles Freeze to Death

Two chilling nights killed them off the coast of Cape Cod

(Newser) - Nearly 190 sea turtles died off Cape Cod in a way no one wants to go—slowly freezing to death. The Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuary says the turtles were found "incapacitated" along the coast of Massachusetts early Friday, NBC News reports. "A lot of the turtles were found...

Sign of 'What the Future Could Look Like' in Remote Hawaii
Sign of 'What the Future Could
Look Like' in Remote Hawaii
in case you missed it
Oct 28, 2018 7:31 AM CDT

Sign of 'What the Future Could Look Like' in Remote Hawaii

East Island disappears beneath Pacific waves

(Newser) - Hawaii might've grown a peninsula this year, but it's now lost a whole 11-acre island, and perhaps endangered seals and turtles along with it. East Island, the second-largest islet in the French Frigate Shoals atoll, a few hundred miles northwest of the Hawaiian island chain, has disappeared since...

Turtle's Coin-Eating Habit Proves Fatal

'Bank' dies 2 weeks after surgery to remove 11lbs of change from her stomach

(Newser) - A 25-year-old sea turtle in Thailand who swallowed nearly a thousand coins tossed by tourists seeking good luck died Tuesday, two weeks after having surgery to remove the coins from its stomach, reports the AP . The cause of death was blood poisoning from the loose change, said Dr. Achariya Sailasuta,...

Tossing Coins for Good Luck Has Unfortunate Side Effect

A sea turtle ended up with an 11-pound ball of coins in her stomach

(Newser) - Tossing coins in a fountain for luck is a popular superstition, but a similar belief brought misery to a sea turtle in Thailand from whom doctors have removed 915 coins. Veterinarians in Bangkok operated Monday on the 25-year-old female green sea turtle nicknamed "Bank," whose indigestible diet was...

Suspect Busted With 107 Stolen Sea Turtle Eggs

Officers say Florida man was taking them as the turtle was laying them

(Newser) - Jupiter is the big story in the news today, but Jupiter Island, Fla., is making headlines, too, for an entirely different reason, WJXT reports. Per a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Facebook post , a report came in about someone taking sea turtle eggs from a beach behind a local...

Giddy Tourists Stop Huge Turtle Army From Nesting

Olive ridley sea turtles are forced to turn back

(Newser) - A huge swarm of sea turtles emerged on the Costa Rican shore earlier this month to lay eggs, like they do every year. Only problem: Thousands of tourists were there too, getting in the way, prancing around for photos, and even placing their kids on the creatures' backs, Gizmodo reports....

Central America Hit By Mass Die-Off of Sea Turtles

Scientists aren't sure what's going on

(Newser) - Between late September and mid-October, 114 sea turtles washed up dead on El Salvador's beaches. All across Central America, the same thing is happening: In Guatemala, 115 have died this year; in Costa Rica, 280; late last year, 200 died in Panama. In Nicaragua, in addition to the turtle...

Sea Turtles 'Pardoned' by President Obama on Hawaii Vacation
 Obama 'Pardons' 
 Sea Turtles 
Dec 28, 2011 8:10 AM CST

Obama 'Pardons' Sea Turtles

President, daughters, friends release four of them in Hawaii

(Newser) - Apparently it’s not just turkeys that are eligible for a presidential pardon—sea turtles are, too. President Obama "pardoned" four of them yesterday during a visit to Hawaii’s Sea Life Park, releasing the 18-month-old turtles into Hanauma Bay. The president was accompanied by his daughters and a...

16% of Nemo Species at Risk of Extinction

'These are the species we're supposed to care about,' says scientist

(Newser) - You might not be able to find Nemo soon. Environmentalists warn that 16% of species associated with characters in the mega-popular Pixar animated movie Finding Nemo are at risk of extinction. “These are species that should be doing better because they are the ones we care about,” said...

20 Stories