The Saga of Long Isand Sound's Sea Turtles

An extremely rare sea turtle found in Long Island Sound almost a decade ago and kept since at the Mystic Aquarium was flown to a new home in Florida recently. The turtle, a Kemp's ridley (also known as Atlantic ridley), got caught in the Sound as water temperatures began to drop. It was rescued and kept alive by the Riverhead Foundation and taken eventually to Mystic. The Palm Beach Post wrote about it today.

Twenty years ago there sea turtles in Long Island Sound captured a lot of attention. Dozens of them began washing up on beaches on the north shore of Long Island, killed or rendered comatose by cold water in November.



I spent a lot of time researching and writing about them, and wrote a chapter of my book about them. But it didn't really fit thematically, so I pulled it. I just put it on my other blog. It's really long but when I re-read it this afternoon, I was fascinated by the Kemp's ridley phenomenon all over again. Click here to read it.