Washback Sea Turtle Hatchlings
Jul 16, 2026
Have you heard the term washback? It's a term used to describe a sea turtle hatchling that has "washed back" to shore after attempting to make its way to the ocean. These washback hatchlings have been receiving care at CMA's sea turtle rehabilitation hospital before they were taken by boat to a sargassum line in the gulf for release! Thanks to our sea turtle nesting and rehab teams for giving these hatchlings a second chance!
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We are preparing for our largest sea turtle hatchling release ever here at CMA. We've been
feeding and monitoring 115 hatchlings in preparation for the release. It's not uncommon
for us to come across some sea turtle hatchlings washing shore after a hurricane or bad weather
activity. Fortunately, majority of our hatchlings that we do come across are able to be released
back out into the ocean. Ideally, sea turtle hatchlings will emerge from the sand. So,
they'll hatch out on their own and they will utilize the energy that they have absorbed
from their yolk sac to basically crawl from the beach, get to the water, swim all the way out to
the floating sargassum or seaweed where they'll live the first few years of their life. So,
in this case, all of our hatchlings made it out to the water and washed back. So,
they already utilized all of that energy to get out to the sargassum, which is why we have to
release them offshore by boat. To identify our hatchlings during their rehab process, we apply
or put numbers on their carapace and then we do remove those prior to their release. It's a lot
of work caring for all these hatchlings, but it is also very exciting to be able to release them
back into the wild knowing that you've been able to help them get back out there.