The number of sea turtles washing up on New England beaches has spiked significantly, many stunned and unable to escape the region's cooling winter waters.
At a sea turtle hospital housed at an old New England shipyard, a biologist leans over a table and uses a needle to draw blood from a sick loggerhead before tagging its flailing flipper.
Some experts think New England's spike in cold-stunned turtles is a climate change story with a twist: the hook-like projection of Cape Cod into the Atlantic helps trap turtles drawn there by warming waters but weakened when the ocean cools down. Most rescued turtles suffer from compromised immune systems and pneumonia due to hypothermia. Exposed to cold water for prolonged periods, they become lethargic and can't move or eat. The ones that survive take months to recover.
"This is particularly alarming, considering the Gulf of Maine is predicted to continue to warm at a rapid rate in coming decades," the authors wrote, noting the Gulf's waters are heating up faster than most of the world's oceans. The researcher's projected as many as 2,349 strandings of Kemp's ridleys —the world's smallest sea turtles— by 2031.
It's widely accepted that Cape Cod, which extends 75 miles into the ocean and takes a hard left at Orleans for 35 miles — effectively serves as a barrier for turtles. Turtles sense the need to move south as waters cool but often are unable to navigate out of Cape Cod Bay.
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