Cold-Stunned Sea Turtle Strandings Mark The Start Of The Season

BREWSTER – In the last two weeks, sea turtle strandings on Cape Cod Bay shorelines have spiked due to rapidly cooling water temperature and wind patterns. 

As of Dec. 2, the New England Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital had treated 257 sea turtles for a variety of critical conditions, including pneumonia, dehydration, traumatic injuries, or sepsis. Species included 214 critically endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles, 39 green turtles and four loggerheads.

“The New England Aquarium has developed ways to streamline intakes of these large numbers of patients, allowing us to give the best possible care to all of the turtles that enter our hospital,” said Adam Kennedy, the Aquarium’s director of rescue and rehabilitation.

In 2014, around 1,400 sea turtles washed up on Cape Cod shores. The Massachusetts Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a federal agency tasked with better understanding the earth’s natural environment and helping to protect resources and species, to coordinate safe rehabilitation efforts along the east coast.

Debbie Beane, a Chatham resident and volunteer with Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary, said volunteer names are entered into the NOAA database so they are authorized to touch the endangered turtles that wash ashore. 

Sea turtles’ internal body temperature is regulated by the temperature of their environment. According to Mass Audubon, “As the water continues to cool, turtles become very lethargic and hypothermic, in a condition called ‘cold-stunned,’ and are unable to swim or eat.” Onshore winds pull them inland where many wash up on Brewster, Dennis, Orleans, Eastham, Truro and Wellfleet beaches.

Turtles feed in the North Atlantic Ocean starting in May and June, and as ocean temperatures plummet, most sea turtles travel south. Due to climate change, ocean temperatures are remaining warmer longer into the colder seasons. This impacts the turtles’ travel schedule. As they head south from their feeding grounds, many turtles get stuck in the hook-like shape of Cape Cod Bay. 

Volunteers are asked to drive rescued turtles in banana boxes to the New England Aquarium in Quincy, or pilots are contacted through a non-profit organization called Turtles Fly Too to coordinate transportation to other rehabilitation hospitals around the country.

According to the aquarium, last week, 30 turtles were flown to North Carolina to free up space for new arrivals at the New England Aquarium’s facility.

The aquarium is running a fundraising campaign to help support sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation, including tagging efforts. The Giving Tuesday campaign will be matching donations dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000. Supporters can visit support.neaq.org/site/Donation2?df_id=5061&5061.donation=form1&%20s_src=PRs_subsrc=24YEPR1&%20autologin=true to donate.