BAY LAKE, Fla. – For Dani Salles, a typical workday might involve weighing a feisty green sea turtle named Lucky, sweet-talking Murphy into position with the threat of a net, or coaxing Finnegan - the tiniest of the bunch - away from chewing on a rubber glove.
It’s all in a day’s work as an aquarist at The Seas with Nemo & Friends at EPCOT, where Salles and her team are nursing a group of rescued sea turtles back to health.
“This is the best part of my day,” Salles said. “I really love the fact that we are working with rescue turtles and that we get to contribute to conservation in the wild.”
Tucked away in an outdoor quarantine area behind the iconic attraction, round tanks hold green sea turtles stranded along Florida’s east coast - near Satellite Beach - while a larger tank houses Kemp’s Ridley turtles transported all the way from New England.
The turtles arrived in two groups. The Kemp’s Ridleys came in December, cold-stunned after being stranded in the New England area. With help from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, they were flown to Florida for long-term rehabilitation. A second group of six green sea turtles arrived in March, transferred from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission facilities on the east coast of Florida.
“Cold stunning can be either sustained temperatures in the oceans being around 50 degrees or below for a period of time, normally about a week or two,” said Chad Jacob, animal care manager at The Seas with Nemo & Friends at EPCOT. “It can also just be a really rapid decrease in the temperature of the waters.”
Green sea turtles, Jacob explained, are especially vulnerable to sudden temperature swings. Because they are ectothermic - meaning their body temperature is regulated by the environment - a rapid drop in water temperature can bring everything to a halt.
“They stop moving, they stop processing food,” Jacob said. “They become pretty lethargic. A lot of them will either be caught floating or wash up onto beaches, and that’s where they enter into the rehab program.”
Fourteen turtles came through the facility this year, and each one has a name. The Kemp’s Ridleys, which arrived around the holidays, were given reindeer-inspired names. The green sea turtles - arriving in March right around St. Patrick’s Day - were given Irish names to match their green hue.
“Our Kemp’s Ridleys were acquired near Christmas time, so they’re affectionately named around some reindeer names,” Jacobs said. “And the green sea turtles, being green and being in March right around St. Patrick’s Day, we did name them some fun Irish names.”
Among them: Murphy, Finnegan, Killian, Seamus and Lucky. Salles has her favorites, though she might not admit it.
“I am particularly partial to these guys because of the time I’ve spent with them,” she said.
Murphy, Jacobs noted, is a textbook cold-stun case - no major infections, no broken bones, just a turtle that couldn’t tolerate the cold.
“Turtles like Murphy that have a cleaner bill of health really just did not tolerate that cold very well, shut some things down, slowed down how his body was functioning and just needed a little bit of time to warm back up, eat some good food and will be ready to go,” Jacobs said.
Every week, Salles and her team weigh each turtle to track progress and adjust diets as needed. She feeds the greens a mix of fish, shrimp, squid and romaine lettuce - the closest substitute available for the seagrass they’d eat in the wild. The Kemp’s Ridleys, which are not omnivores, get a protein-only diet.
“We weigh them once a week to kind of monitor their weight gain and consumption while they’re with us, and then we can modify their diets,” Salles said. “We can make the right decisions on their diet based off that.”
Catching and weighing the turtles is its own challenge - each one with a distinct personality. Lucky, one of the biggest greens, is described by Salles as “spicy.” Prancer, a Kemp’s Ridley, also holds a special place in her heart.
“I like him because he’s spicy in the front and peaceful in the back,” she said with a laugh.
Getting each turtle out of the water requires patience, strategy and a willingness to get soaked.
“You kind of have to know a little bit,” Salles said. “You have to be the turtle in the moment to try to figure out what side they’re gonna go to so that you can try and get them in the least stressful possible way.”
Salles didn’t start out in the quarantine area. She began her 15-year career at The Seas on the dive team in the guest programs before networking her way onto the aquarium team. She’s been working in quarantine for about three to four years - and says the variety is what keeps it exciting.
“Quarantine is a really amazing area to be in because you get a mix of everything,” she said. “Pretty much everything that comes into the building comes through here, so you have a lot of variety, a lot of differences and a lot of changes in your day.”
The facility can house up to 20 sea turtles at a time in its dedicated quarantine tent, which is reserved year-round for sea turtle care. When turtles are ready for release, the process is coordinated with state and federal agencies. Kemp’s Ridleys, given the impracticality of transporting them back to New England, are released on the east coast of Florida at a designated park. Green sea turtles are returned to the same beaches where they were stranded.
“Once our veterinarian team has determined that they have a clean bill of health and that they’re candidates for release, we coordinate with the state agencies and then we release them within a couple of weeks,” Jacobs said.
Of the 14 turtles that came in this year, the team has already released some. Several more - including Murphy - are expected to be released within four to six weeks. A few with lingering wounds or infections may remain through the summer.
The sea turtle program is just one piece of a broader conservation mission at The Seas. The facility also runs a manatee rehabilitation program and supports a range of conservation projects, including a Purple Martins project, butterfly tagging and butterfly counting - much of which happens out of public view.
“I think people don’t quite know everything that we do and all the conservation efforts that go in,” Salles said, “because a lot of times people just come and see the animals that we have, but they don’t know all the other things that we do, all the conservation projects that we fund.”
For Jacob, the relationship between the theme park experience and conservation work is symbiotic.
“I think the tourism side brings a lot of resources into rescue, and the rescue brings a lot of visibility into what’s been happening for many years,” he said. “Without that tourism component, I think that knowledge gap would be much wider than it currently is.”
Sea turtles face threats beyond cold water - plastic pollution, light pollution and runoff all take a toll. Jacobs says it’s not uncommon to find microplastics in turtles’ stomachs or debris in their lungs upon intake. The current group was fortunate - their issues were primarily cold-related - but the reminders are ever-present.
“Reduce any plastics and extra pollutants,” Jacobs said. “Make sure to recycle and discard your trash appropriately.”
He also recommends turning off unnecessary coastal lights - which can disorient nesting sea turtles - and conserving water to reduce runoff into the ocean.
For Salles, the work is its own reward. After 15 years, she says the ability to affect change and share the animals’ stories is what brings her back every day.
“Being able to affect positive change and be able to share the stories of the animals that we care for is really what makes me really proud to be here every day,” she said.