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Young turtles washed ashore in seaweed

Young ones: Aquarist Ryan Tacklin holds two juvenile Loggerhead turtles, which are only four to six months old, at the Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo. The turtles were found by members of the public. The adult loggerhead sea turtle weighs approximately 300 pounds, young loggerheads are exploited by numerous predators but once the turtles reach adulthood, their formidable size limits predation to large marine creatures such as sharks.

Two juvenile loggerhead turtles have been added to the bumper crop of the animals that have washed ashore this winter.“They just washed in with the seaweed,” said Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo curator Patrick Talbot, of the two post-hatchling turtles handed in by members of the public.Aquarium staff believe the loggerheads hatched out over the summer of 2011.Mr Talbot explained that the turtles, which are normally found with Sargassum seaweed, can be carried inshore on the drifting masses of the weed.“We’ll hang onto them here for as short a period of time as possible,” he said. “We’ll fatten them up again and then take them back out in a boat and release them.”Loggerheads are an endangered species of sea turtle, and usually live in the large bodies of seaweed hundreds of miles to the Island’s southeast, he said.