Outer Banks sea turtles rescued from frigid waters

The cold weather isn’t just a pain for us humans.

For some sea turtles, it can mean life or death.

More than 100 sea turtles, stunned by frigid waters, washed ashore on the soundside of Hatteras Island, N.C., on Monday and Tuesday.

“When the water temperatures drop, they are not able to handle that, so essentially their system shuts down,” Chelsea Witherup, a tech with the Virginia Aquarium, told WTKR in Norfolk, Va. “They float along the surface and wash to the beach.

“Usually below 65 degrees is when we start becoming concerned.”

Lou Browning and a team of volunteers with the non-profit non-profit Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation took to the beaches to save the turtles.

“We walk miles with the wind blowing the turtles towards us,” Browning told WTKR. “We have to get them off the shore side as quickly as possible into a controlled environment.”

The National Park Service posted on its Cape Hatteras National Seashore Facebook page that “the majority of the cold-stunned turtles have been found from Buxton to Hatteras. Seashore biotechs and multiple volunteer organizations will continue the search for cold-stunned turtles.”

Browning told WTKR that the turtles that were saved near Buxton were green and Kemp’s ridleys.

He said the turtles were probably in the Oregon Inlet looking for food — such as grasses and blue crabs — and they ended up getting stuck when weather turned cold.

“They didn’t get the memo that they needed to go farther south before the weather got bad,” Browning said.

For sea turtles, being cold-stunned is similar to hypothermia. The North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission says it can happen when water temperatures drop below 55 degrees. It renders the turtles lethargic and affects their ability to swim or dive. They end up floating motionless and can be washed ashore.

The turtles were moved to the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island. It’s expected that many of them will be released back into the waters by the end of the week.