BOCA RATON — Humans weren’t the only ones who evacuated because of the recent Florida hurricanes.
After Hurricane Helene battered Florida’s Gulf Coast in late September, all of the sea turtles — seven, to be exact — were moved from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to The Coastal Stewards facility in Boca Raton . Because of the hurricane, the facility received about 20 hatchlings, too.
“There’s not really many facilities that take sea turtles,” said Dr. Shelby Loos, director of marine life conservation at the Boca Raton facility. “So it’s really important we all work together and take turtles, when needed, the best we can.”
In South Florida, there are just four locations that can do so, Loos said. They are Zoo Miami, the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach and a hospital in Marathon, a city in the Florida Keys.
As Hurricane Milton headed toward Florida’s west coast on Wednesday, Loos prepared the facility as one normally would — removing any outdoor objects that could be blown away by the wind, arranging cameras to monitor the facility during the storm and monitoring the storm’s path closely.