Space centre comes to the rescue of oil-spill turtles

A total of 278 sea turtle nests were trucked to Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre from the end of June until mid-August.

Wildlife officials organised the relocation because of fears the oil spill might endanger them.

The shipments ended after the Gulf of Mexico was deemed safe for the sea turtles.

Biologist Jane Provancha said at least 15,000 hatchlings were released from more than 28,000 eggs that were transported to Kennedy. The final batch is due to be released into the Atlantic near Cape Canaveral this week

That is a 50 per cent-plus success rate, slightly better than in the wild, where raccoons and other animals prey on the eggs and hatchlings scampering toward the ocean.

Most of the transported nests belonged to loggerhead sea turtles, a threatened species.