Why Life Is So Tough for Sea Turtles
Ocean trash and an epidemic virus are wreaking havoc on the marine reptiles, which have been beating the odds for millennia.
Clearwater, FloridaCupid the green sea turtle swims around the aquarium with her butt in the air.
At first it just looks like quirky behavior, but Cupid has a buoyancy problem, linked to an old wound, that makes it hard for her to stay underwater.
Because she wouldn’t survive in the wild, Cupid is a permanent resident here at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium's Turtle Bayou, which is home to three other green sea turtles. (Also see "8 Pictures From Inside Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehab.")
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently reclassified green sea turtles in Florida from endangered to threatened in parts of their range, due to increased numbers of turtles nesting in Florida and on Mexico's Pacific coast.
In 2015, authorities reported 28,088 green sea turtle nests in Florida—a new record high. In the early 1990s,
