{"id":31360,"date":"2020-09-18T12:57:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T16:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=31360"},"modified":"2020-09-18T13:02:33","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T17:02:33","slug":"natural-resources-police-escort-sea-turtles-back-to-the-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2020\/09\/18\/natural-resources-police-escort-sea-turtles-back-to-the-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"Natural Resources Police Escort Sea Turtles Back to the Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Department, National Aquarium Release Three Rehabilitated Reptiles<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 426px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/50356400756_e7e24fbec2.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Natural Resources Police officer releasing sea turtle into the water\" width=\"416\" height=\"277\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Lauren Moses<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Maryland Natural Resources Police in Ocean City recently teamed up with the National Aquarium to release three rehabilitated sea turtles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On Sept. 9, officers met with aquarium representatives along with two Kemp\u2019s ridley turtles and one green sea turtle. The turtles, Mozzarella, Stilton, and Halloumi, were rescued last year with symptoms related to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2019\/11\/21\/sea-turtles-marine-mammals-at-risk-from-low-temperatures\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">cold stunning<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8212; a condition caused by a dramatic decline in water temperatures affecting the cold-blooded turtles &#8212; including pneumonia, respiratory distress, dehydration, infection, and emaciation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After being successfully rehabilitated by the Baltimore aquarium, the turtles were ready for release back into the ocean. To provide a proper and safe send-off, NRP offered to use their patrol boats for the release.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once they were a few miles offshore at a secure spot, the officers delicately placed each turtle in the water. After a few seconds, the turtles disappeared into their underwater home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cold-stunning of sea turtles and marine mammals can occur from late October to early winter. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The immediate impacts can cause some species to become slow and unresponsive, making them dangerous to themselves and boaters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anyone who sees an unresponsive or lethargic sea turtle or marine animal in the water or on the beach should call the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Fisheries\/Pages\/oxford\/stranding.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Maryland Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Hotline at 800-628-9944. The hotline is manned year-round, 24 hours a day.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Department, National Aquarium Release Three Rehabilitated Reptiles The Maryland Natural Resources Police in Ocean City recently teamed up with the National Aquarium to release three rehabilitated sea turtles.\u00a0 On Sept. 9, officers met with aquarium representatives along with two Kemp\u2019s ridley turtles and one green sea turtle. The turtles, Mozzarella, Stilton, and Halloumi, were rescued<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2020\/09\/18\/natural-resources-police-escort-sea-turtles-back-to-the-wild\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,14,33],"tags":[3335,4975,3337,4980],"class_list":["post-31360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-nrp-news","category-the-bay","tag-marine-mammal-and-sea-turtle-stranding-program","tag-maryland-natural-resources-police","tag-national-aquarium","tag-sea-turtle"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31360"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31393,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31360\/revisions\/31393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}