His name is Herb, and he was very, very cold when he was found on a Cape Cod beach.
The 75-pound loggerhead sea turtle was discovered by volunteers from the Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary at Wellfleet Bay and was taken to the New England Aquarium in Boston for a slow but steady warmup.
The aquarium said Herb's body temperature was in the 40s when he was found on the beach in Truro on December 3rd.
Veterinarians and rescue biologists slowly warmed him about five degrees each day, and his body temperature is now in the low 70's.
Now Herb is ready to be moved to the Riverhead Foundation on New York's Long Island, which rehabilitates and releases seals, whales, dolphins, and sea turtles.
Herb, who was also suffering from an eye infection, is not the only sea turtle rescued from Cape Cod in a state of hypothermia this season, but the loggerhead turtle does have one distinction.
"This particularly guy, Herb, is the biggest of the season," said Tony LaCasse, a spokesman for the New England Aquarium.
So far this year, a total of 62 stranded sea turtles have been taken to the aquarium.
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