PANACEA, Fla. (WTXL) — With the cold weather this weekend, water temperatures can get below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which can lead to sea turtles washing up on shores cold-stunned.
- When water temperatures go below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, sea turtles can become cold-stunned and wash up on shore.
- With the current sea turtle hospital at GSML, the FWC has placed temporary tanks to help the lab potentially serve multiple cold-stunned turtles.
- Watch the video below to learn more about how the lab will help the turtles this weekend.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
If water temperatures drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, sea turtles can become cold-stunned and wash up on shore.
I'm Serena Davanzo, your Panacea neighborhood reporter.
That's where the tanks you see behind me come into play. The Gulf Specimen Marine Lab will help these turtles out of the cold-stunned state and bring them back to the Gulf.
Due to the lab's current sea turtle hospital, the FWC's mobile unit has set up a temporary home for turtles during these cold snaps. How this'll work is when a turtle is found in this state, they'll bring it back here and slowly raise its temperature back to normal. Then they'll release them back into the water once it warms up again.
Hunter Eichler, the Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehab Coordinator at the lab, says that when their hospital expansion is complete, they wouldn't have to go through the process of setting up temporary tanks such as these.
"And it's a lot of time on our part to set this up year after year," said Hunter Eichler, the Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehab Coordinator. "If we have these tanks already ready, and we're already running a fully independent system with our sea turtle hospital, then we can be ready in a moment's notice. You know, any day the cold snap comes, we're ready to rescue those turtles and house them."
Since I last told you about their new hospital expansion, they've fundraised about $25,000. However, they still have quite a way to go to fund it.
Eichler says that this temporary setup will stay here for the rest of the cold season in case more cold spells return.
In Panacea, Serena Davanzo, ABC 27.
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