APOLLO BEACH, Fla. — The Florida Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center is at capacity with the amount of sea turtles being treated, according to officials with the center.

What You Need To Know

  • The Florida Aquarium says it is at capacity at its Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center in Apollo Beach

  • Currently, the center is treating 55 turtles at one time, when the previous record was around 30

  • A majority of the turtles being treated are cold stunned from the east coast of Florida or from New England 

  • Each turtle will spend between three and 12 months being treated at the center, according to Dr. Debi Luke, senior vice president of conservation for The Florida Aquarium

The center is currently treating more turtles at once than ever before, treating 55 turtles at one time when the previous record was around 30.

“We’ve got turtles everywhere right now,” said Dr. Debi Luke, senior vice president of conservation for The Florida Aquarium. “We’ve had an unprecedented year where our facility and just about every other one is at capacity for the number of turtles that we can take in and treat at one time.”

The center, located in Apollo Beach, has received dozens of cold stunned turtles from the Florida east coast and from New England.

According to Luke, those turtles typically come in February, but this year, they came in January and in larger numbers.

“We’ve gone through cold spells up and down the eastern seaboard,” Luke said. “Same thing with the turtles.”

So, officials with the center had to get creative.

For example, they’re using their deep dive tank that’s normally used to rehab turtles to see if they’re able to make it back out into the wild, and have added temporary enclosures in it, called howdies, so they have a place to go.

“We’re making space wherever we can,” Luke said.

They have other tanks on the ground floor of the facility too, just to house as many as possible.

It’s a lot of work and with only about four and half full-time staff working, according to Luke, it’s not an easy task.

“You’ll see with all the barnacles that grow on them, that they’ve really been struggling for quite a while out there,” she said.

But with the help of those staff members, volunteers and interns, they’re putting in the time working long hours to help as many turtles as possible because they see what that work can do for the life of the shelly reptiles.

“To see them barely survive and going through the stages with our help on being able to get them back out into their natural environment is one of the most rewarding things we could ever do,” Luke said.

It’s what makes a job like that so special because it makes a difference for these endangered species.

According to Luke, a way to support their work is by going to The Florida Aquarium where a portion of the ticket will go to their center or to go online and donate to them directly.