In a significant effort to save one of the world's most endangered turtles, SeaWorld Orlando has welcomed 12 Kemp's ridley sea turtles, which were found cold-stunned due to plummeting water temperatures, according to a recent announcement. These turtles, rescued as part of a larger mission that delivered 33 cold-stunned sea turtles to warmer environs in Georgia and Florida, are now under the vigilant care of the marine rescue organization.

The labor to save these shelled creatures was far from solo. It involved the New England Aquarium (NEAQ), the National Marine Life Center (NMLC), and other partners like Turtles Fly Too, whose pilots volunteered to fly these critters to safety despite ratting off an all-too-common story that finds sea creatures in distress. In events like these, the human spirit meets the moment for nature's species in peril. In a statement reported by GoToGoOrlando, the SeaWorld team expressed pride in playing "a vital role in the rehabilitation of these turtles" and their steadfast "commitment to wildlife rescue and conservation."

For those who are not familiar, the Kemp's ridley sea turtle, scientific name Lepidochelys kempii, owes its moniker to Richard M. Kemp, a fisherman from Key West, Florida, who first verbalized the species for identification way back in 1906. While the Gulf of Mexico is their primary habitat, juvenile Kemp's ridleys also find their way into the Atlantic, sometimes reaching as far north as Nova Scotia, a detail highlighted by WFTV.