PANACEA, Fla. (WTXL) — The Gulf Specimen Marine Lab is expecting hundreds of cold-stunned sea turtles to come into their facility over the weekend as temperatures drop even lower.
- In about 24 hours, the lab has taken in almost 50 sea turtles.
- They expect more to come in as the water temperatures continue to decrease and outside temperatures hit the single digits.
- Watch the video below to learn more about how the lab is caring for the turtles.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Since Wednesday, the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab has received around 50 cold-stunned sea turtles, and they expect more to come this weekend.
I'm Serena Davanzo, your Panacea neighborhood reporter.
What you see behind me is the team here processing the turtles that came in on Thursday evening.
This time last year, the panhandle helped rehab over 1,300 cold-stunned sea turtles.
With the cold spell this weekend, they're working to help hundreds more.
A sea turtle can get cold-stunned when water temperatures get below 50 degrees.
"So you imagine a sea turtle nice and happy and swimming around in an aquarium, or, you know, out in the ocean" explained Hunter Eichler, the Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehab Coordinator at GSML. "These certain sea turtles are going to be pretty much lifeless and listless. They're super cold. Their breaths are very slow, so they come in here really cold and really lethargic."
Workers at the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab are currently caring for turtles from St. Joe Bay.
Eichler says since the bay is a peninsula, turtles can get trapped in shallow waters, unable to move to warmer waters.
As the lab works to expand their sea turtle hospital, organizations like the Florida Panhandle Marine Institute, FWC, NOAA, USGS, and more came together to help get ready for this influx.
I asked a representative with Florida Panhandle Marine Institute, "Why is it important to have a working relationship with the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab and your organization to help protect aquatic marine life?"
"Yes, it's a great question. And basically it boils down to, we are here for the same mission, to protect and rescue, rehabilitate sea turtles, as many as we can," said Lauren Albrittain, the stranding coordinator for the Florida Panhandle Marine Institute. "And so, being able to collaborate with each other and with other sea turtle conservation groups, this is a very large multi-group effort for these cold-stunned events. It makes it all work better, and it makes us be able to save more turtles that way. And so that's why we want to keep these relationships strong."
When we first told you about the lab preparing for these turtles, there were only 3 tanks.
The FWC has added 21 extra tanks in a makeshift area behind the lab's classroom.
Those tanks can hold roughly 20 turtles each.
If you see a cold, stunned turtle, you're urged to contact the FWC Hotline.
*FWC or #FWC or at 1-888-404-3922.
Eichler says that when sea temperatures are back to above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, they’ll return them to the sea.
In Panacea Serena Davanzo ABC 27.
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