The first group of sea turtles that are part of a sweeping effort to save threatened and endangered hatchlings from death in the oily Gulf of Mexico have been released into the Atlantic Ocean.
Fifty-six endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles were released on a beach at Florida’s Canaveral National Seashore this week, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Thursday.
Sixty-seven eggs were collected from a nest along the Florida Panhandle on June 26 and brought to a temperature-controlled warehouse at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, but only 56 hatched.
State and federal officials plan to bring thousands more eggs for incubation in the coming months. NASA currently has about 1,100 eggs incubating at the space center site. The Associated Press; NASA photo
