Meet Sheldon
No, it’s not Yertle. By popular acclaim, the National Aquarium’s baby loggerhead turtle has been named Sheldon.
Turtle fans offered more than 20,000 entries during the Aquarium’s competition to name the newcomer. Sheldon joined the Maryland Mountains to the Sea exhibit in December thanks to a partnership with the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores’ Loggerhead Head Start program, which rescues and rehabilitates imperiled hatchlings.
Each of the five names selected as finalists has a story.
Boh borrows the nickname of Baltimore’s favorite beer, National Bohemian.
Two finalists honored notables who died in 2016: Snape for actor Alan Rickman’s Harry Potter villain and Ziggy for singer David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust persona.
Kai is Hawaiian for sea.
Sheldon, alluding to Jim Parson’s character on CBS television’s comedy The Big Bang Theory, won 27 percent of the vote. Ziggy was the runner-up with 22 percent. Snape came in third with 18 percent.
“We’re so happy Sheldon has found a home at the Aquarium and very pleased that the public was so involved in naming our loggerhead,” said senior aquarist Elizabeth Claus.
Three other rescue turtles at the Aquarium became Ed, Franklin and Henry, taking names submitted by family and friends in memory of recently lost loved ones.
Sheldon can look forward to a year of residency at the National Aquarium before being released into the wild.
Sea turtles, a fundamental link in marine ecosystems, cultivate sea grass beds, helping to maintain their health. They also eat jellyfish.