Weather cited in dozens of N.C. sea turtle strandings

ROANOKE ISLAND, N.C.

Sea turtles, stunned by the cold temperatures, are washing up on Outer Banks beaches in overwhelming numbers this month - so many that rescuers can barely keep up and space for them is filling up at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

"Normally, we will grab them, run them up to the vet hospital, they'll stay there 24 hours, and then they'll be brought to the aquarium," Michelle Bogardus, lead sea turtle biotechnician at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, said this week.

Bogardus said the sudden drop in water temperatures apparently caught the turtles -most of whom had been feeding in the Pamlico Sound - by surprise. The reptiles do not adapt well to water below 50 to 60 degrees.

With about 40 strandings on Hatteras Island so far this month - double the number last November - harried stranding staff members and volunteers are spinning in circles trying to help the cold-blooded animals fast enough. Before last year, it was typical to see fewer than 10 strandings in November.

The strandings, she said, seemed to have started when the weather changed suddenly on Nov. 10.

Most of the turtles found alive will recover if they're caught in time, Bogardus said.

On Tuesday, about seven turtles, ranging from a 60-pound loggerhead to a tiny hatchling, were put in containers, covered with towels and loaded into a covered pickup at the North Carolina Aquarium. Most had been successfully rehabilitated, but some were aquarium residents who were ready to be wild.

Wendy Cluse, assistant sea turtle biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said she planned drive the turtles to Morehead City, where a charter boat would take them to the Gulf Stream to be released.

Others left behind were still recovering from the sudden drop in water temperatures. A few also had injuries.

Nameless, barnacle-covered sea turtles in the rehabilitation room look every bit as displeased as their human counterparts in the hospital. But they don't have to bother being appreciative.

"They bite, they slap, sometimes they even hiss," Cluse said. She gestured toward a large juvenile loggerhead awaiting transport. "That one there, if he bit my finger, he'd probably crush it, if not take it completely off."

Loggerheads the size of a trash-can lid lay nearly motionless in tanks in the steamy warmth of the turtle rehab room, their front flippers splayed out awkwardly on either side of their brown-mottled heads. Scattered around them in numerous round and rectangular black plastic basins were smaller green turtles, one per container.

Every few minutes, a towel-covered turtle would raise its head or flail its flippers, only to settle back down in its compact surroundings. A Kemp's ridley swam fitfully nearby in a large metal tank, periodically pushing its snout up on the side of its temporary home.

A total of 19 sea turtles have been taken to the aquarium for rehabilitation in recent weeks. And the way things have been going, more are expected.

"I've been at this job for six years," Cluse said, reviewing treatment records for the turtles, "and this is by far the busiest episode we've seen."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com