Rick Neale

FLORIDA TODAY

VIERA — Last weekend, Brevard Zoo Sea Turtle Healing Center volunteers had their hands full caring for a record-breaking 74 "washback" baby turtles that were beached by Hurricane Nicole's powerful swells.

The surf shoved more ashore all week: By Sunday, the facility had taken in 366 struggling tiny turtles that were rescued from Space Coast beaches — five times the earlier total.

Of those 366 washbacks, 297 remained alive by noon Sunday. The survivors included 283 loggerheads, 10 green turtles and four hawksbill turtles, said Shanon Gann, sea turtle rehabilitation assistant.

They likely hatched a month or two ago. Most were exhausted by the time they hit the beach.

By midweek, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials may launch a boat from Fort Pierce to transport the turtles back to their Sargasso Sea home, Gann said. This floating habitat of sargassum algae typically lies 30 to 35 miles off the Brevard County coast.

"With the washback situation, this is just a big wrench in their long-term plan. We don't know what's actually going to happen, if these guys will be strong enough and robust enough to survive," she said.

Necropsies will be performed on the deceased turtles. Ingested plastics are most likely to blame, Gann said.

"That sargassum collects those little pieces of plastic. Their bellies are full of that plastic, and they're having a hard time passing it," she said.

Brevard Zoo caring for hurricane-stranded baby turtles

Inside the Sea Turtle Healing Center, the 297 surviving turtles are divided into two large outdoor tanks: one for good eaters and one for struggling eaters. Zoo volunteer Stephanie Brooks, who earned a degree in marine biology at Hawaii Pacific University, spent two hours Sunday morning hand-feeding the washbacks a mixture of fish, shrimp and squid tentacles.

"We've got some that are already trying to forage, which is great," Brooks said, watching a wee green turtle diving to the bottom of the "good eaters" tank.

However, fellow volunteer Sara Spurk, who earned a marine biology degree from the Florida Institute of Technology, removed a motionless loggerhead from the bottom of the same tank. The weakened little animal was taken inside for a veterinary examination, and its prognosis was unknown.

Brooks spotted a floating loggerhead that latched its little mouth onto a nearby washback's neck.

"Hey! You! Stop it!" she declared, separating the two turtles.

Most of the stranded washbacks were rescued south of Patrick Air Force Base, said Roger Pszonowsky, a Sea Turtle Preservation Society board member. Volunteers with the Indialantic organization checked beaches daily the past two weeks, and Pszonowsky said tourists from Pennsylvania and Ohio also patrolled the beaches saving turtles.

"There's very little sargassum on the beach. The winds are out of the north. So we think the event is done for now," Pszonowsky said.

"I'm glad it's over," he said.

The Sea Turtle Healing Center opened in April 2014.

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638, rneale@floridatoday.com or follow @RickNeale1 on Twitter.

Sea turtle hotline

To report a stranded sea turtle, call the Sea Turtle Preservation Society emergency line at 321-206-0646.