Sea turtle strandings not a new phenomenon
Turtles are conditioned to regain their strength. This turtle is "air swimming" during a physical exam. Read or listen: Sea turtle tracking reveals migration routes. (NOAA)
Volunteers collect cold–stranded sea turtles that have washed ashore on New England beaches. These lucky turtles get released after a winter of rehab.
Walking along a New England beach in the late fall or winter, you might come across a sea turtle that’s washed ashore. Turtle strandings are not a new phenomenon.
Connie Merigo: There are some early writings, back in the Thoreau days, when he does his walks across Cape Cod, of coming across sea turtles. These are events that have been happening for, probably, centuries. And we know that they were probably consumed by early Native Americans in the area.
That was Connie Merigo at the New England Aquarium. She told us that in late fall each year, juvenile sea turtles feed in Cape Cod Bay. Turtles are cold–blooded, so their bodies assume the temperature of the water around them.
Connie Merigo: If they don’t start making their way south before the bay temperatures start to decline with the onset of late fall and winter, those animals are left behind and they become hypothermic. So they do end up stranding.
But people are helping the turtles. Volunteers collect the turtles and transport them to the New England Aquarium. There, the turtles are slowly warmed and treated for complications of hypothermia. People nurse and care for the turtles over the winter.
In summer, when the waters off Cape Cod are warm enough, they release them. To find out what you can do to help sea turtles: Sea Turtle Restoration Project (You can track sea turtles online here as well.)
Our thanks today to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation .
Turtle handlers lined up for release of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. Dr. Bridget Dunnigan, NOAA Woods Hole Science Aquarium veterinarian (in the blue cap), holds Marshmallow, a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle fitted with a satellite tag. Marshmallow recuperated from cold–stun stranding at the NOAA Woods Hole Science Aquarium under the care of Dunnigan (NOAA)
Read or listen: Sea turtle tracking reveals migration routes
To find out what you can do to help sea turtles:
Sea Turtle Restoration Project (You can track sea turtles online here as well.)
Sea turtle stranding and salvage network
To learn more about sea animal rescue:
New England Aquarium: animal rescue
Our thanks to:
Connie Merigo
Marine Animal Rescue Program Coordinator
New England Aquarium.
Boston, MA
