Hundreds of Sea Turtles With Hypothermia Are Washing Up in Cape Cod, Cold-Stunned as Temperatures Drop

After a long, mild fall, New Englanders are not the only ones shocked by the sudden arrival of winter temperatures.

Hundreds of sea turtles are now washing up on Massachusetts beaches, cold-stunned and suffering from life-threatening conditions including hypothermia, pneumonia, dehydration, sepsis or traumatic injuries, according to a New England Aquarium statement published on Monday. Members of the Massachusetts Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary have been rescuing the afflicted turtles at Cape Cod Bay and taking them to the aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in Quincy.

“No new wounds, but there was a big chunk out of his shell from something obviously in the distant past,” Bruce Beane, a sea turtle rescuing volunteer from Chatham, tells the Cape Cod Times’ Zane Razzaq, describing the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle he found on Ryder Beach shortly after midnight Monday morning. “He couldn’t quite walk but kept trying.”

Cold-stunning events for sea turtles are expected around this time of the year. Sea turtles are cold-blooded, meaning they can’t regulate their own body temperatures, and they thrive in oceans between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, per the Independent’s Julia Musto. They reach northern waters by hitching a ride on the warm Gulf Stream in May and June, but during the fall some become trapped behind the hook-shaped Cape Cod peninsula, especially when strong winds prevent them from migrating back to warmer waters for the winter. The cold waters make the turtles weak and unable to feed or swim, which in turn can leave them vulnerable to issues, including disease, starvation and boat-caused injuries.

As of earlier this week, the hospital workers have treated a seasonal total of 257 live sea turtles: 214 Kemp’s ridley turtles, 39 green turtles and four loggerhead turtles. Upon arrival, the reptiles go through a physical exam, bloodwork and X-rays, with some requiring subsequent treatment for weeks or months. Certain cases even call for an ultrasound or an epinephrine shot to stimulate their heartbeat, according to the Cape Cod Times.

“When they come in here, the main thing that we need to do is give them fluids—because they’re dehydrated, and then also antibiotics as well, because the vast majority of them do get pneumonia,” Melissa Joblon, director of animal health at the New England Aquarium, tells WCVB’s Todd Kazakiewich.

The turtles are then slowly transitioned into warmer and warmer waters, until they’re cleared to be released again. “At the end of the day, getting these turtles back to the wild is what we are doing and what we want,” says Adam Kennedy, the New England Aquarium’s director of rescue and rehabilitation, to Rodrique Ngowi and Patrick Whittle of the Associated Press (AP). “We want them back in the ocean.”

Unfortunately, however, cases of cold-stunned turtles are rising.

Around 2010, the aquarium’s rescuers would take in 38 to 40 turtles on average. Now, their annual average is just over 400 turtles, Kennedy tells the Independent. Most of those are Kemp’s ridleys, the world’s smallest sea turtle species, which is critically endangered.

Experts say climate change is playing a role in this increase. Rising ocean temperatures push sea turtles north during warm months, which increases the chance of them getting stranded in the fall. According to NASA, 90 percent of global warming is happening in the oceans, rather than on land, as the oceans absorb excess heat.

“The warming of the Gulf of Maine over the years is now allowing more and more turtles to get into Cape Cod Bay,” Kennedy tells the Independent.

“Normally the numbers weren’t very high years ago,” he adds to the AP.

Margherita Bassi | READ MORE

Margherita Bassi is a freelance journalist and trilingual storyteller. Her work has appeared in publications including BBC Travel, Discover magazine, Live Science, Atlas Obscura and Hidden Compass.