Eight sea turtles recently arrived for rehabilitation at The Florida Aquarium’s new $4.1 million Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center in Apollo Beach. These are the first turtles to be cared for at the facility since it opened in January.

The turtles, which included 7 green and one loggerhead, arrived from Volusia County. The turtles are all in stable condition.  The seven green turtles were all cold stunned and recently rescued on the state’s east coast.

The two story, 19,000-square-foot Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center features five different rehabilitation pools including one of the state’s deepest turtle-exclusive dive pools with an observation window. The pools range in size from 1,500 to 25,000-gallons.

The sea turtle dive pool, which reaches a depth of 11-feet, can be used to assess buoyancy issues, swim conditioning and food trials before turtles are cleared by FWC to be returned to the wild. The center also includes a state-of-the-art sea turtle surgery suite.

Since opening its doors, The Florida Aquarium has helped rescue and rehab more than 150 threatened or endangered turtles. The Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center will only ensure that number continues to grow.

All care and turtle rehabilitation by The Florida Aquarium is done with approval of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) under conditions not harmful to marine turtles and authorized under conservation activities pursuant to FWC MTP-18-172.

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