Temperature drops increase rescues of hypothermic sea turtles

The New York Marine Rescue Center rehabilitation facility already holds over 50 hypothermic sea turtles in its tanks — a count that includes two records for the number of rescues in a single day.

According to Maxine Montello, executive director of the NYMRC, “Things are crazy here.” She said they started Nov. 25 with a single sea turtle with 49 other strandings between Nov. 30 and Dec. 5. “We’ve had days of 12 to 15 turtles stranding in one day, which has never happened before,” she said. .

Then on Saturday, Dec. 7, that record was broken and a new one was established when 18 sea turtles were rescued, according to a social media post from the NYMRC.

Mrs. Montello attributed the increase in cold-stunned loggerhead turtles to the rapid drop in air and water temperatures. According to seatemperature.info, the average temperature in Long Island Sound dropped to 54 degrees on November 24.

Mrs. Montello surmised that another contributing factor to the increase in rescues is that “we’ve doubled the size of our patrol team and our trained citizen scientists are going out daily looking for these turtles.”

Part of the work NYMRC does is host a cold anesthetized sea turtle lectures and training sessionswhere volunteers learn what to look for, how to patrol beaches and what to do when a cold stunned sea turtle is found. Many of the lectures, which are the first part of the education, were held this year in local libraries. The 2025 schedule has not been announced yet, but keep an eye on the NYMRC website for next year’s dates and locations.

However, you do not need to be a trained volunteer to help sea turtles. The NYMRC’s stranding hotline — 631-369-9829 — is available to anyone who happens to come across one, even if the turtle appears to be dead.

As previously reported by the Suffolk Times, Ms Montello explained that as cold-blooded reptiles, sea turtles cannot regulate their own body temperature. When the air temperature drops in autumn, the water temperature also drops. When the water reaches 55 degrees, sea turtles that have not traveled to warmer areas become susceptible to cold stunning.

The cold water slows down the sea turtle’s movements and weakens them. Stunned sea turtles are unable to swim and wash ashore with the wind and tide.

Here on the North Fork, a report of a cold-stunned sea turtle — an endangered Kemp’s ridley — found by Kendal Bayer on a remote stretch of Cutchogue Beach on Wednesday, Dec. 4, was posted on social media.

Jennifer Murray of the Turtleback Conservation Center in Peconic, who issued the report, said a Long Island Sound hotspot for loggerhead sea turtles runs between Iron Pier Beach and Duck Pond Road in Riverhead.

“The remote stretches are the most critical,” said Ms. Murray via text. “Like the stretch between Hallock State Park Preserve and Breakwater (the beach in Mattituck). It is best to go just after high tide if possible,” she added.

Her post, like the one on the NYMRC feed, urges beach walkers and trained patrollers alike to make use of the cold sedation hotline as soon as possible to increase the chance of survival for found sea turtles.

Moving, attempting to warm, or transport the sea turtle without instructions from trained NYMRC biologists is strongly discouraged.

Other ways to help include monetary donations at nymarinerscue.org, purchasing supplies from their Amazon wish list, and of course, spreading the word about the cold numbing hotline to anyone who spends any time at the beach during the off-season.