Baby Loggerhead Sea Turtle Moves Into National Aquarium

BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) -- The National Aquarium's newest resident fits in the palm of your hand.

Baltimore's aquarium announced Tuesday that a baby loggerhead sea turtle is now living in the attraction's coastal beach exhibit.
The turtle will be on view for a year before being released into the wild.

WJZ's Mike Schuh has more.

It's really astounding. Puffer fish waiting to puff, frogs winning a staring contest and in the big pool, Calypsyo just doing her majestic thing.

But upstairs is one of Calypso's distant cousins: a loggerhead  sea turtle.

He's so small he can fit in the palm of your hand, but his impact is huge.

There's only a few thousand of these turtles left, the aquarium rescued him from the beach in North Carolina. He was headed the wrong way and the odds are he would have died. He's so small that a lot of critters would eat him fort lunch and that's why he's in Baltimore.

Right now you have to struggle to see him in the exhibit, but by nest year when they're ready to put him back into the wild, he should be the size of a dinner plate.

The baby turtle does not have name yet, but the aquarium plans to hold a public naming for the animal in 2016.

According to the aquarium, loggerhead turtles are less likely to be hunted for their meat or shell compared to other sea turtles, but they are threatened by accidental capture in fishing gear.