‘It’s a beautiful thing:’ Rescued sea turtles returned to the ocean off Jekyll Island
On Monday morning, the Georgia Aquarium along with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center released eight sea turtle patients back to their natural habitat.
Susan Smith and her husband were visiting Jekyll Island from Atlanta, and it was their first time watching a sea turtle release.
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“It’s exciting to be amongst all this wildlife,” Susan Smith said.
The group of sea turtles were a mix of Loggerhead and Kemp’s Ridley. They were rescued off the coast of New England and were found suffering from cold-stunning.
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“Their body temperature gets too cold too fast sort of like hypothermia with humans,” Michelle Kaylor with the Georgia Sea Turtle Center said.
Kaylor said there were three other turtles brought in, but they were not ready to be released just yet. She’s hopeful they can be back in the ocean in the coming weeks.
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Caroline Murphy helped nurse the sea turtles back to health and said moments like these are special.
“When you work these turtles, you see them coming in pretty much lifeless,” Murphy said. “It’s a moment of triumph when they get to go back and just it’s a beautiful thing.”
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