Two dozen Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are recovering in Florida after freezing waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, caused them to suffer frostbite, pneumonia, and abrasions.
The 24 endangered sea turtles arrived at the Marinelife Loggerhead Center in Juno Beach, Florida, on December 9, thanks to the nonprofit organization LightHawk. Last year, the center received another group of turtles stunned by the cold, which were released into the Atlantic Ocean months later.
They are expected to remain at the center until spring, when they will be released into the Atlantic Ocean to return to New England, said Heather Barron, director of science and veterinary medicine at Loggerhead.
She explained that the turtles suffered from a condition called hypothermic torpor, which requires treatment with antibiotics, fluids, and nebulization.
Hypothermic torpor occurs in extremely cold temperatures and causes cold-blooded sea turtles to become weak and immobile. It commonly affects olive ridley, loggerhead, and green sea turtles.
Turtles migrate north in the summer, and many become stranded as they head south on the hook-shaped Cape Cod Peninsula, according to a fact sheet from the New England Aquarium. As ocean temperatures drop, the turtles enter torpor, become malnourished, and suffer from hypothermia. They begin washing ashore, where volunteers rescue them and take them to the sea turtle hospital.
Several turtles were sent to Florida to alleviate 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 November 28 and went through the triage process at the Boston facility, Snyder said.
They were sent to Florida to make room for more turtles arriving from Cape Cod, he explained. So far, during the annual hypothermic torpor phenomenon that began on November 7, they have treated 472 affected turtles.
Hospital staff are working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fish and Wildlife Service to transfer the turtles to various sea turtle hospitals, including Loggerhead, Snyder said.
“These girls are very sick when they arrive here, and they’re receiving extensive treatment,” Barron said of the turtles sent to Juno Beach. “They’re being nebulized, where they actually inhale medicine. That helps their lungs work better.”
When the turtles arrive in groups at Loggerhead, staff members give them names based on a theme, Barron explained.
“And in this case, it’s Greek mythology,” Barron said. “So we have Pandora and Gaia and Persephone and Helios and all those people.”
(AP)
