World’s rarest sea turtle washes ashore in dire need of aid

• A rare sea turtle is getting the help it needs after beachgoers found it stranded on a beach in bad shape and called for help.
• They came across the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, an adult female, in Galveston and called Texas’ sea turtle hotline. Photos shared by the Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research show her body and shell riddled with green sludge.
• The turtle was lethargic and covered in epibionts, including barnacles, algae and sediment, which attach to a sea turtle’s shell when it’s sick and unable to swim at normal speed.
• “After an emergency visit with our veterinary partners at the Houston Zoo, she is now at our rehabilitation hospital receiving the treatment she needs to recover. We are hopeful for her recuperation and eventual release back into the Gulf,” the research center wrote.
• Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are the rarest sea turtle in the world, according to Florida wildlife officials, and the smallest marine turtles in the world.