A rare tropical sea turtle has turned up in B.C. waters.
According to Oceanwise, the 27-kilogram male Olive Ridley sea turtle was found in the waters of Port Alberni on Monday, and collected by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).
The animal, nicknamed Berni, was transported to Parksville and left in the care of the Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.
According to Oceanwise, the turtle’s body temperature had dropped to 11 C, which it said is dangerously low for the species.
Aquarium head veterinarian Dr. Martin Haulena said the turtle appeared “cold-stunned.”
As cold-blooded animals, sea turtles depend on the ocean to control their body temperatures, said Haulena. When ocean temperatures are too cool, they enter a hypothermic state and are unable to swim or forage.
The rescue centre plans to slowly raise the turtle’s temperature, while rehydrating him, treating him for potential pneumonia and performing blood tests and scans.
“Berni has a long road to recovery but he is responding to treatment,” said MMRC manager Lindsaye Akhurst in a media release.
“Once he’s stabilized, we will work closely with Canadian and U.S. authorities to get the permits that allow him to be released, in warmer waters.”
Haulena said the animal may have ended up in B.C. waters because of the reappearance of “the blob,” a large patch of warmer-than-usual water in the Pacific Ocean.
He said sea turtles from Mexico and Central America have been known to occasionally ride warmer water currents to the cooler B.C. coast.
Olive Ridely sea turtles are the second smallest and most abundant species of sea turtles, but remain classified globally as “vulnerable” by the World Conservation Union.
Only four of them have ever been recorded in B.C. waters.