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Recovering Sea Turtle To Be Transported To San Diego

Corinne Boyer

An olive ridley turtle now in Newport recovering from hypothermia will be moved to San Diego tomorrow (Tuesday).

The turtle was named “Solstice” because she was found on a northwest beach on December 21st. Erin Paxton is with the Oregon Coast Aquarium. She says the endangered animal was scheduled to recuperate there a little longer, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has ruled her healthy enough to travel. Paxton says this is good news:

Paxton: “The move to San Diego is ideal because if we were to have a power outage here in Newport, her rehabilitation room could get cold and, as a reptile, she can’t regulate her body temperature. So the move down to San Diego means that she’ll be that much closer to a climate that’s well suited to her.”

Paxton estimates Solstice will remain under human care until late summer, when she’ll be released in warm U.S. waters near San Diego.

Karen Richards joined KLCC as a volunteer reporter in 2012, and became a freelance reporter at the station in 2015. In addition to news reporting, she’s contributed to several feature series for the station, earning multiple awards for her reporting.
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