Turtle’s tale: Nickel, the Shedd Aquarium’s endangered green sea turtle, marks her 20th year in Chicago
Some Midwesterners dream of trading winter for warmth by moving to Florida to start a new life. For Nickel, the green sea turtle in the 90,000-gallon Caribbean Reef exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium, the journey happened in reverse.
The turtle debuted at the Shedd Aquarium 20 years ago this month, but her epic tale began a few years — a nickel’s worth — earlier.
‘It seemed like she kind of wanted help’
July 1, 1998, was oppressively hot and sticky in southwest Florida. Just how Matt Finn — a self-described “outdoors kind of guy” — liked it.
The conservationist had moved to Goodland, Florida, with just his dog and a boat and trailer hitched to his truck.
On that day, Finn and a colleague were exploring the Ten Thousand Islands, the largest expanse of mangrove forest in North America, for the Smithsonian Institution.
“We were coming down Fish Hawk Creek when I saw something in the mangrove trees that didn’t look quite right,” he said. “So
