“Cold stunning events happen at the most inopportune time,” warned Dr. Donna Shaver during the annual Cold Stunned Turtle Training webinar last October. She was right. The week before Christmas, Dr. Phillipe Tissot, TAMU-CC sent out a warning based on prediction models of the approaching cold front. Water temperatures were going to be below the turtle’s threshold of 46.4 degrees F for more than 24 hours just as the Christmas holiday would be starting.
Air temperatures dropped more than 30 degrees as the cold front arrived on Thurs, Dec. 22. While conditions prevented most search & rescue efforts on Friday, two Mid-Coast Sea Turtle Rescue volunteers braved the cold, searched around Port O’Connor, and successfully rescued 4 juvenile green sea turtles.
Christmas Eve weather was chilly but the drop in wind allowed six boats to go out. Unfortunately, two boats had mechanical issues and had to return without searching but the four remaining boats were successful in rescuing eight turtles. By Christmas day the weather had much improved and another four boats rescued 35 turtles. On Mon, Dec. 26 the greatest effort was made. Six boats searched the bays out of Port O’Connor and Charlie’s and brought in a whopping fifty-one turtles! Sadly, searchers were also starting to find dead turtles.
On Tues. TPWD Coastal Fisheries returned to the bay to do their surveys and, in the process, rescued eight turtles. A few turtles were reported through the 866TURTLE5 hotline (866-877-8535, option 3) including an exceptionally large turtle stranded on the ICWW, two at Charlie’s and a dead, predated turtle at Boggy.
Most of the rescued turtles were driven to Tivoli by MidCoast Sea Turtle Rescue volunteers where they met up with volunteers from Keep Aransas Beautiful (KAB) who then transported the turtles to the Amos Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) in Port Aransas. KAB has a specially outfitted turtle-hauling trailer that was funded by donations. The trailer is lined with shelves to hold turtle tubs and have doors to keep turtles safe during transport. TPWD also utilized a trailer and drove a load of turtles all the way to the ARK from POC, a more than 2-hour drive plus a ferry ride.
For the rest of the week, calls came through the hotline reporting a couple live turtles and quite a few dead. The documentation of dead turtles is important as it provides biologists with information about turtle populations and the impact of the conditions. On Thurs, Dec. 29, the ARK and the Texas State Aquarium (where most of the Mid-Coast turtles were housed due to space limitations at ARK) released nearly 300 turtles back into the water on North Padre Island.
To see a short video of our rescue efforts search YouTube “Mid-Coast Sea Turtle Rescue”.
With more help on the water, perhaps we could have avoided some of the deaths, but local efforts from our community was outstanding! If you would like to become involved in the Mid-Coast Sea Turtle Rescue, email MidCoastSeaTurtleRescue@gmail.com
Also, consider donating to the Mid-Coast Sea Turtle Rescue (SABayPartnership.org/support-us) or the Aransas Rehabilitation Keep (Friends of the Ark Sea Turtle P.O. Box 755, Port Aransas, TX 78373). Report live or dead turtles to 866TURTLE5 hotline (866-877-8535, option 3)
Many Thanks to All who Helped in the Cold Stunned
Sea Turtle Rescue Efforts especially
TPWD Coastal Fisheries
Damon Reeves, Austin Sury & Xandra Mapp
Mid-Coast Sea Turtle Volunteers
Donna Bailey, Bill Balboa, Allan Berger, Brigid Berger, Bill Carlberg, Gloria Carlberg, Dennis Charleton, Patti Chatterson, Aimee Christiansen, Mike Christiansen, Travis Christiansen, Tyler Christiansen, Nicole Collins, Denise Crane, Rusty Crane, Jerry Crosby, Charles Flaitz, Sue Glover, Alane Haardt, Otto Haardt, Carlyn Hammons, Cody Hammons, Scott Hartl, John Humbert, Brandon Kendrick, Jennifer Kendrick, Jeff Larson, Steve Marwitz, Bradley McDonnell, Jeanee Newberry, Steve Plant, Ashley Reese, Grant Reese, Jack Reese, Barson Schmidt, Greg Schmidt, Evan Smith, Austin Sury, Pam Terry, Reese Vaughn, April Wittnebert, Zach Wittnebert, Haven Young
