New England Seeing a Rise in Beached Sea Turtles

At an animal hospital in the Northeast United States, a biologist takes blood from a sick
loggerhead sea turtle named Honey Bun.

This is one of the first steps scientists must take before treating and rehabilitating the turtle so
that it can be returned into the wild.

Cape Cod, in the state of Massachusetts, may have some of the largest numbers of
turtle strandings in the world.

The number of turtles that became trapped on Cape Cod beaches has risen over the past 10
years. That information comes from the Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

This year, volunteers found 829 turtles washed up on the sand. About half of them were dead,
including some that were frozen solid. That number is nearly twice what workers found in 2016
and nearly 10 times more than 2008.

Some experts think the number of washed up turtles is related to climate change.

A paper published in PLOS ONE notes that there were more strandings of Kemp’s ridley sea
turtles in years with warmer sea-surface temperatures. It added that of the threats to turtle
populations, “climate change may present the broadest threat for sea turtle conservation.”

Over the past 10 years, many turtles have been moving north from the Gulf of Mexico into the
warming waters of the Gulf of Maine. There, they feed on mussels, crabs and other sea creatures.

Cape Cod extends into the Atlantic Ocean, serving as a kind of trap for turtles. When the waters
cool there, the animals start to have health problems, like developing pneumonia. They have
problems moving and eating.

Bob Prescott is the director of Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and helped to prepare the PLOS
ONE paper. He notes that the sea turtles “know how to leave, but the Cape is like a trap –
a hook within a hook.”

If the turtles survive, it can take months before they are fully recovered. Adam Kennedy is a
biologist at New England Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts. He says that
when the turtles arrive at the hospital “they look like they are dead, especially in December.”

Other experts argue that climate change alone cannot explain the increased number of turtle
strandings.

Jeffrey Seminoff heads the Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessment Program at the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service. He believes that
the high number of strandings “probably results from the simple fact that there’s more turtles.”
Seminoff said that the recovery of the turtle population and “success of conservation efforts at
the nesting beaches” could explain the higher number of turtle strandings.

Kennedy, the biologist, said that he has mixed feelings when the turtles are released back into the
wild. “It’s bittersweet, because you spend so much time with them but ultimately every one of
these guys getting back to the ocean helps the population.”

Recently, Honey Bun – the turtle we met at the beginning of our report – and other turtles were
taken to Florida. They were released into the water.

Kelly Shaffer is with National Aquarium Baltimore, which worked with four other groups to
organize the turtles’ release. She noted that she feels a sense of “joy and accomplishment” at
“being able to put them back out there.”