May 10, 2016 — Over the past decade, over 4,100 sea turtles — averaging to more than a turtle a day — have been sucked into the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant on Hutchinson Island in Florida, resulting in injuries and even deaths, TCPalm reported. Since the plant opened in 1976, about 16,000 turtles, mainly the threatened loggerhead and endangered green, have been affected.
Xander, a subadult loggerhead, is just one of these many turtles. In August, he was found tangled up in fishing line and wounded in the canal. After being rescued, Xander was given antibiotics and underwent orthopedic surgery. After treatment, he was released back into the wild on March 31, according to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.
The federal government is finally stepping in to build pipe grates on the three pipes, each a quarter-mile long, that run through the ocean, which will take two years to build and test. This is the first step taken in addressing this issue, but the crosshatched mesh grate will only protect about 27% of the turtles that ever enter the pipes. Any smaller mesh would also stop water flow, the Florida Power & Light Company said, according to TCPalm.