Cold stuns turtles off NC beaches. Volunteers work to find them before it’s too late

When the water temperature drops below 50 degrees off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, volunteers on the barrier islands go on alert, the Ocracoke Observer reports.

When the ocean temperature drops too much during the winter, volunteers with the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles watch the beaches and sound along the Outer Banks as much as they can, the Observer reports. They hope to find the stunned sea turtles before it’s too late and get them to a sea turtle rescue facility to warm up, according to the newspaper.

The cold water can stun sea turtles and the endangered mammals can die if they don’t warm up, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It is very cold on Hatteras today,” Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation wrote on Facebook Monday. The organization shared a video of a turtle found by a volunteer. “This sea turtle is the only one that I know of to be found alive today. It’s just getting too cold.”

Ocracoke volunteers told the newspaper they have found a number of dead turtles recently, but on one day over the weekend they found two alive and took them to the Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation Center at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

The video shows a Kemp’s ridley turtle with a body temperature of 46 degrees. It was “cold and limp,” the video notes, and unresponsive. “The Kemp’s ridley turtle is the world’s most endangered sea turtle,” National Geographic notes.

The turtle looks like it could be dead, but the volunteer in the video finds a faint heartbeat.

“There are no guarantees, but hopefully this one will pull through. Thanks to Elizabeth for finding this one, and to all the (Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation) staff and volunteers. Every time we call for a transport, some volunteer drives over 120 miles!” the organization wrote.

NOAA says Kemp’s ridley turtles are the most common species to be found stunned by cold, but it can also happen to green and loggerhead sea turtles. Turtles rely on the water to regulate their body temperature, so they have to migrate south to warmer waters in the winter, NOAA explaines.

“The term ‘cold stunning’ refers to the hypothermic reaction that occurs when sea turtles are exposed to prolonged cold water temperatures. Initial symptoms include a decreased heart rate, decreased circulation, and lethargy, followed by shock, pneumonia and possibly death,” NOAA writes.

This story was originally published January 22, 2019 at 10:39 AM.