An endangered sea turtle was returned to the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, months after he was found stranded on a beach and suffering from hypothermia last winter.<\/p>\n
Named Elton, the juvenile Kemp\u2019s ridley sea turtle was discovered cold-stunned, or hypothermic, on the shores of Barnstable, Massachusetts, in December.<\/p>\n
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said sea turtles such as Elton can become cold-stunned when they do not migrate south in time to escape the onset of cold temperatures.<\/p>\n
Following months of rehabilitation with the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, Elton was released into the Atlantic by way of a beach by the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
The animal, which officials estimate to be between 2 and 5 years old, was set onto the sand and quickly swam back into the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cElton\u2019s return to the ocean is a powerful reminder of what we can achieve when science, compassionate care, and public support come together,\u201d said Leigh Ann Clayton, Director of the New York Aquarium. \u201cThis turtle\u2019s journey\u2014from cold-stunned and vulnerable to swimming in the ocean again\u2014embodies the mission we carry every day at the New York Aquarium and across WCS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elton was released into the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday. Wildlife Conservation Society<\/p>\n
The endangered sea turtle was found stranded on a beach and suffering from hypothermia last winter. Wildlife Conservation Society<\/p>\n
Elton returned to the ocean after receiving months of rehabilitation with the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. Wildlife Conservation Society<\/p>\n
Footage of his release shows a crowd of people on the beach cheering on the young turtle.<\/p>\n
\u201cElton! Elton! Elton!\u201d they chanted as the turtle swam away.<\/p>\n
Kemp\u2019s ridley sea turtles are the smallest sea turtle species in the world, weighing between 70 and 100 pounds, according to NOAA.<\/p>\n
They were named after Richard M. Kemp, a fisherman from Florida, who first submitted the species for identification in 1906.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An endangered sea turtle was returned to the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, months after he was found stranded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[15773,5871,79,37601,194,201,52027],"class_list":{"0":"post-72654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-atlantic-ocean","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-turtles","12":"tag-us-news","13":"tag-wildlife","14":"tag-wildlife-conservation-society"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}