White baby sea turtle in Florida

After white humpback and other whales … a white hamerkop … now this.

By Andres Jauregui in the USA:

White Sea Turtle Hatched, Rescued, Rehabilitated And Released In Florida (PHOTO)

White sea turtles are rare in nature, but teams in Florida have discovered two in as many weeks, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.

Nest monitors found one loggerhead hatchling at a nature reserve, and it was strong enough to swim away. But the white sea turtle shown here, which was found near New Smyrna Beach, needed a little extra care.

“All of the other hatchlings had escaped and this one was down there on the bottom,” Amber Bridges, a field biologist with Ecological Associates, told the newspaper. “I tried to release it but it was too weak.”

She brought the white turtle to the Marine Science Center in Volusia County, where it recuperated and was later released into the wild. The center has helped thousands of turtles and sea birds recover and return to the wild, according to its website.

Although this particular turtle is white due to a lack of pigment, it is not an albino. However, there have been other reported cases of albino sea turtles.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2012) — The old adage “you are what you eat” is helping scientists better understand the threatened loggerhead turtle, which is the primary nester on Central Florida’s beaches: here.