Aquarium of the Pacific opens new sea turtle rehabilitation area

For the first time, visitors at the Aquarium of the Pacific will be able to see rescued sea turtles as they go through rehabilitation for an eventual  return to their natural habitat.

The aquarium celebrated the grand opening of its new sea turtle rehabilitation area on Wednesday, Jan. 28. The new area, located next to the aquarium’s Molina Animal Care Center, will play a crucial role in supporting existing turtle rescue and rehabilitation efforts that have been ongoing there since 2000.

The new space doubles the aquarium’s capacity for caring for stranded, sick or injured sea turtles, officials said, and is now only one of two facilities in Southern California that have this type of dedicated space.

Rescued sea turtles from Los Angeles County and beyond will be swimming in an approximately 4,000-gallon rehabilitation pool. Guests will be able to learn more about how the aquarium helps turtles through an accompanying audio visual display next to the facility’s viewing window.

“Our jobs are to care for animals and to bring the stories of the ecosystem in the ocean to our visitors, and this one checks all boxes,” Nate Jaros, vice president of animal care, fish and invertebrates at the Aquarium of the Pacific, said about the new area. “It’s a story where people can contribute to making sure that these animals are healthy and that we share our environment with them. It’s a program that’s also lived behind the scenes for decades. This is a great opportunity to raise awareness for it, what we do, and our mission.”

The Aquarium of the Pacific announced in October 2024 that it received a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to construct this on-site sea turtle rehabilitation area. The aquarium also received contributions from the Molina Family Foundation and the KM Shimano Family Foundation for this new space to help rescue sea turtles, officials said.

The aquarium has worked to rescue, rehabilitate and release sea turtles back into the wild for more than two decades in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The Aquarium of the Pacific’s veterinary staff members regularly help to rehabilitate ill or injured sea turtles for release back into the ocean, including green, olive ridley and loggerhead sea turtles.

A major part of that effort is the institution’s Southern California Sea Turtle Monitoring Project. The effort brings together both professional and citizen scientists to monitor the creatures, who have taken up residence in the San Gabriel River.

Every week, a group of dedicated volunteers makes the 1.5-mile trek down the San Gabriel River bike path to participate in the program, which gathers crucial data that’s used to build out scientists’ understanding of the species’ behavior, the health of the larger ecosystem they occpy and more.

“Our volunteers have been making a difference in the lives of sea turtles for over a decade,” said Cassandra Davis, volunteer services director at the aquarium, “and their actions help to save the life of a special green sea turtle that you will meet today.”

In March, volunteers spotted a badly injured green sea turtle that was stuck in the river – because one of its flippers had been tangled in fishing line and debris so badly that it couldn’t swim away.

Aquarium staffers were later able to rescue the sea turtle. They brought it back to the aquarium for care – where they discovered that 90% of the turtle’s front flipper was dead from a lack of blood circulation caused by the fishing line tangle – and that it had a fishing hook lodged in the back of its mouth.

Veterinary staffers were able to remove the hook from the turtle’s mouth, but the flipper was already dead and couldn’t be saved. It was removed at the ball-and-socket joint by veterinary staff. After 11 months of rehabilitation and care, the turtle is fully recovered from its life-threatening injuries and will be released back into the ocean in the coming weeks, said Dr. Lance Adams, Aquarium of the Pacific veterinarian.

This turtle, swimming around with its three flippers, was the first to use the rehabilitation pool. It was also in the background as aquarium staff and donors cut the ribbon to the new area on Wednesday.

The aquarium rehabilitated and released both a green sea and an olive ridley turtle last year, and two weeks ago, on Jan. 14, it rescued another one.

“This sea turtle was also entangled in fishing line and tethered to debris in the San Gabriel River,” Adams said. “It has a similar but slightly less severe flipper constriction injury, and we are working to try to help this sea turtle keep a flipper. The second turtle is now resting behind the scenes as it continues its recovery.”

Aquarium veterinary staff are continuing to care for the turtle with wound care, physical therapy, and cold laser therapy – which is meant to reduce inflammation and increase circulation in the flipper –  so it has a better chance of healing, Adams added.

The new sea turtle rehabilitation area is an important addition to the work the aquarium does, Adams said, including being able to accept more turtles to help and making the work visible to the public.

“It makes it easier for us to be able to say yes to accepting a sea turtle that needs to be rehabilitated, because now we have a dedicated space for that,” he said. “The public can see our conservation efforts with sea turtles in action. They can see us providing the daily care for the animals while they’re in this rehabilitation tank. Or they can see us working on the sea turtles for some of their advanced veterinary care in the Molina Animal Care Center just across the path.”

To learn more about the aquarium’s work with sea turtles, visit tinyurl.com/AOTPTurtles.