Rescued New England turtles migrate to Florida - on Interstate 95

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Nine juvenile sea turtles were spared a long, tiring swim from Cape Cod to the warm waters off Georgia last week by being driven there.

Dr. Terry Norton escorted Bruce, a loggerhead turtle, to the water's edge. (New England Aquarium)

The 9- to 75-pound animals were discovered nearly frozen over the last two winters on Cape Cod, part of a yearly winter tragedy that has anywhere from 25 to 150 endangered and threatened sea turtles stranded in shallow water or on beaches. That’s because at the end of the summer, young sea turtles can get trapped in Cape Cod Bay. As winter moves in, their body temperature declines as the water temperature does, and they become lethargic.

If they are lucky, they are washed up on beaches where volunteers find them each winter. The near-death turtles are then brought to the New England Aquarium to be treated for hypothermia, pneumonia, dehydration, shell and bone fractures, and infections.

Two senior New England Aquarium biologists spent two days and 20 hours driving the turtles – and caring for them – before they were released into the 70 degree waters off Jekyll Island, Ga., near the Florida border. In addition to the Aquarium, the turtles were rehabbed at the Woods Hole Aquarium on Cape Cod and the University of New England’s Marine Animal Rescue Center in Biddeford, Maine.

Two Kemp-Ridley sea turtles that were released had been at the Woods Hole Aquarium since the 2007 stranding season. They suffered from complex bone infections but have now recovered.