Friday, December 9, 2016 by New England Aquarium — Endangered sea turtles rescued off of Cape Cod were taken home to Florida, thanks to the kindness of an unnamed Michigan couple.

The 52 sea turtles were flown to Florida’s Panhandle, where they will receive additional rehabilitation at the Gulf World Marine Park and will be eventually released. New England Aquarium rescuers had treated them for hypothermia, but the Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts, was at capacity and needed to make room for the endangered sea turtles that are still stranding on Cape Cod. The couple responded to an urgent request passed on to the general aviation community looking for volunteer pilots to transport the re-warmed and medically stabilized young sea turtles.

Since last Saturday, the aquarium has received more than 100 live sea turtles rescued off of the frigid beaches of Cape Cod Bay by the staff and volunteers of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. The aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in Quincy is full, and more sea turtles are expected to strand in the coming days. As temperatures drop and strong winds blowing out of the northwest create big waves, inert, floating sea turtles are washed up on the beaches of the Outer Cape.

Love sea turtles? Check out our photo gallery of Sea Turtles Around the World.

The New England Aquarium said a handful of pilots, including the Michigan couple, volunteered to fly the turtles home to make room for other sea turtles who will be treated at the Quincy hospital this year.

New England Aquarium biologists and veterinarians slowly re-warm turtles about five degrees per day over several days. All of the turtles are extremely dehydrated, most are emaciated and about half are treated for pneumonia. Rehab can take from a couple of months to nearly a year.

The endangered sea turtles — 50 of which are members of the world’s most endangered sea turtle species, Kemp’s ridleys, which are native to the Gulf of Mexico — are part of the 229 sea turtles the aquarium has saved so far this season. That number is the fourth-largest in the aquarium’s 25 years of rehabbing sea turtles.