Cold-Stunned Sea Turtles with Baltimore Neighborhood Names Recuperating at National Aquarium

The National Aquarium is extending its gratitude to its Baltimore community for the nearly 500 submissions received for the National Aquarium's Baltimore neighborhood rescued sea turtle naming contest announced in November. With the help of its community, Aquarium Animal Rescue staff have named more than three dozen sea turtles that arrived from New England on December 3, 2025, after some of Baltimore's beloved city neighborhoods.

The top five winning neighborhoods in the contest were (in order):

• Canton
• Hamilton
• Hampden
• Patterson Park
• Fell's Point

Turtles have been named for each of these top vote getters, and many more, from Mount Vernon to Jonestown, Little Italy to Brooklyn, and Curtis Bay to Cherry Hill. Nearly 100 distinct neighborhoods received votes during the contest, which concluded on December 1, just in time for the turtles' arrival. Each year, Aquarium teams select a naming theme for the rescued animals it works to rehabilitate and release. These sea turtles arrived right at the end of our 2025 Baltimore neighborhood naming theme window after a busy seal rescue season earlier in the year that saw seals named for Waverly, Evergreen, Guilford, Arcadia, Montebello, Woodberry and Remington pass through our rehabilitation spaces.

Altogether, 40 cold-stunned sea turtles arrived at the National Aquarium's rehabilitation space in December. Each of these turtles was weighed, measured and examined upon arrival by the Animal Rescue team and a staff of more than a dozen volunteers. Thirty-nine turtles survived the transition after one succumbed to injuries incurred before its rescue in New England. From tiny "Little Italy," one of this season's smallest turtles with a sizeable chunk of its carapace lost to injury, to determined "Mount Vernon" and "Patterson Park," who each have a missing flipper due to injury or infection, these sea turtles, now recuperating off-exhibit in an expansive rehab pool within Pier 4 at the National Aquarium, embody the spunk and grit of the diverse and unique Baltimore neighborhoods for which they are named.

"These 'Baltimore' turtles are certainly keeping us busy," said Animal Rescue Manager Margot Madden, "and we're grateful to our Baltimore community for their enthusiasm and support for the work we do here on behalf of these endangered species."

Each year, hundreds of mostly juvenile sea turtles are rescued en masse from the shores of Cape Cod, MA, by volunteers with the Massachusetts Audubon Society when, after water temperatures plummet in the fall, young sea turtles develop a condition known as cold stunning. Cold stunning, a condition similar to hypothermia in mammals, results in confusion and respiratory ailments, which can knock turtles off their normal migratory route toward warmer southern waters and leave them disoriented and susceptible to injuries from predators and boat strikes, as well as a host of other complications. These turtles are then triaged and distributed to organizations like the National Aquarium that are part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network (STSSN).

Sea turtles are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, but resources that support animal rescue and rehabilitation are limited. The work undertaken by the National Aquarium and our partner organizations would be well supported by the proposed bipartisan Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance and Rehabilitation Act. The National Aquarium is pleased to advocate for this important legislation as part of its institutional conservation goals.

Now that they have survived the transition to their rehab space, the 39 turtles—20 green sea turtles and 19 Kemp's ridley turtles—receive round-the-clock individualized attention and medical intervention from the National Aquarium's Animal Health and Animal Rescue teams, from careful feeding and growth monitoring to attention to specific injuries.

As they recover, the goal remains to return them as quickly as possible to the ocean. The healthiest turtles are currently scheduled for release as soon as mid-February. So that they are released into temperate water, Aquarium teams will drive these turtles south to Florida for their release. As rehabilitation goes on, turtles recovering more slowly will also be released as soon as possible as close to Baltimore as possible, with releases occurring along the east coast throughout the spring as coastal waters warm up. Next up for our Animal Rescue team and volunteers: seal rescue season which typically begins in earnest in early March here in the Mid Atlantic.