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Hi, Hope this is the correct forum. Quite often (2 within the last week) my husband finds turtles (in the past...a softshell from Florida) washed up on the rocky beach of an island off the tip of Manhattan, located in the Upper New York Bay. The current two are red ear sliders.

Can red ear sliders survive here? Do they need rescue?
Is the salt content in the bay acceptable?

The island is at the mouth of two rivers, we are guessing they have been washed down from one these during heavy rains. I've been trying to read up on them and nothing helps with this. Additionally, aren't they a little North for a safe winter? Do we need to rescue them? I'm hoping the answer is no since the frequency is increasing.


Again, we currently have a 4.5" inch and a large 7.5"/melanistic. We can locate them somewhere else if need be, just don't know what to do?

Can someone help?? (obviously the softshell Florida needed rescue, but the red ear...?)

Thanks.

Hello!
Most likely they were dumped by someone who bought them in Chinatown and they outgrew their tanks. At least that's my hypothesis. If it's quite common for you to find these assorted turtles here, my suggestion would be to contact a local herp rescue.
Red ear sliders can hibernate so they do stand a chance of survival, however, if they hadn't hibernated in captivity I'm not sure how that affects them in the wild.
I guess it's really your decision about what to do with the RES's. You can keep them, contact a rescue, or re-release where you found them. I'd be careful if you re-release, I'm not sure if you'd be fined for dumping, it'd be best to be discrete.
If you do decide to house them, you've certainly come to the right place for information on set-up and care.
Good luck with them, and how nice of you to look out for them

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I've heard that a lot of tropical reef fish get carried up the gulf stream all along the east coast during the summer months. Most wind up dying when winter comes. A bunch of local divers go out at the end of August and try to collect as many as they can and give them to local aquarists.

Sounds like turtles are being carried up the stream too! The softshell definitely needs to be rescued. The RES probably should too. They could probably do well in a local freshwater pond or lake but they're non-native and technically should not be released there.

I've heard of RES surviving in very brackish conditions. There is probably some government agency you can call, though they will probably do nothing. A herp rescue might be a good idea too... but if they have adapted, then that creates another dilemma.

The RES could always be reacclimated to fresh water by starting them out in brackish and slowly adding more and more fresh water every day until the specific gravity nears 1.0, then move the turtles into some new fresh water.

I'd say they were dumped in either the Hudson or East river and were carried down to the bay. There's no way they could survive in the NY harbor.
Here's a site you may want to look up. They are in LI and I'm sure they would take them in:
http://turtlerescues.com/index.htm