JUNO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — In Florida, 24 Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are on the mend after encountering the icy waters near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which left them battling frostbite, pneumonia, and various abrasions.

These endangered turtles made their journey to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach on December 9, courtesy of LightHawk, a nonprofit group. This isn’t the first time the center has cared for turtles in such distress; last year, they rehabilitated a similar group of cold-stricken turtles, which were eventually released back into the Atlantic.

According to Heather Barron, the center’s chief science officer and veterinarian, the turtles will stay at the facility until spring. At that time, they’ll be set free in the Atlantic Ocean to journey back north to New England.

Barron explained that the turtles are suffering from a condition known as cold stunning, which necessitates treatments involving antibiotics, fluids, and nebulization to aid their recovery.

This condition, cold stunning, occurs when temperatures plummet, rendering the cold-blooded turtles immobile and sluggish. Typically, Kemp’s ridley, along with loggerhead and green sea turtles, are the species most affected.

The turtles migrate north in the summer and many get stuck while heading south in the hooked peninsula of Cape Cod, according to a New England Aquarium fact sheet. As the ocean temperatures drop, the turtles become lethargic, emaciated and hypothermic. They begin washing ashore, where volunteers rescue them and take them to the sea turtle hospital.

A number of turtles were sent to Florida to relieve overcrowding at the New England Aquarium, said Pam Bechtold Snyder, director of marketing and communications for the Boston facility. Most of those turtles were stranded during a strong westerly wind event on Nov. 28 and went through the triage process at the Boston facility, Snyder said.

They were sent to Florida to make room for more turtles coming in from Cape Cod, she said. So far during the annual cold-stunning phenomenon that began on Nov. 7, they’ve treated 472 hypothermic turtles.

The hospital staff works with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service to transfer the turtles to various sea turtle hospitals, including Loggerhead, Snyder said.

“These guys are very critically ill when they get here, and they are undergoing extensive treatment,” Barron said of the turtles sent to Juno Beach. “They’re getting nebulized where they actually breathe in medicine. That helps their lungs do their job better.”

When turtles arrive in groups at Loggerhead, the staff gives them names, following a theme, Barron said.

“And in this case, it is Greek mythology,” Barron said. “So we have Pandora and Gaia and Persephone and Helios and all those guys.”

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Frisaro reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.