export_ofoct.com

[00:00.38] At an animal hospital in the Northeast United States, a biologist takes blood from a sick loggerhead sea turtle named Honey Bun.

[00:15.79] This is one of the first steps scientists must take before treating and rehabilitating the turtle so that it can be returned into the wild.

[00:30.13] Cape Cod, in the state of Massachusetts, may have some of the largest numbers of turtle strandings in the world.

[00:40.49] The number of turtles that became trapped on Cape Cod beaches has risen over the past 10 years.

[00:50.06] That information comes from the Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

[00:58.82] This year, volunteers found 829 turtles washed up on the sand.

[01:06.79] About half of them were dead, including some that were frozen solid.

[01:16.88] That number is nearly twice what workers found in 2016 and nearly 10 times more than 2008.

[01:24.59] Some experts think the number of washed up turtles is related to climate change.

[01:33.62] A paper published in PLOS ONE notes that there were more strandings of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in years with warmer sea-surface temperatures.

[01:47.96] It added that of the threats to turtle populations, “climate change may present the broadest threat for sea turtle conservation.”

[01:59.65] Over the past 10 years, many turtles have been moving north from the Gulf of Mexico into the warming waters of the Gulf of Maine.

[02:11.87] There, they feed on mussels, crabs and other sea creatures.

[02:18.77] Cape Cod extends into the Atlantic Ocean, serving as a kind of trap for turtles.

[02:28.07] When the waters cool there, the animals start to have health problems, like developing pneumonia.

[02:37.37] They have problems moving and eating.

[02:41.88] Bob Prescott is the director of Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and helped to prepare the PLOS ONE paper.

[02:51.98] He notes that the sea turtles “know how to leave, but the Cape is like a trap – a hook within a hook.”

[03:02.60] If the turtles survive, it can take months before they are fully recovered.

[03:19.07] Adam Kennedy is a biologist at New England Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts.

[03:20.13] He says that when the turtles arrive at the hospital “they look like they are dead, especially in December.”

[03:33.95] Other experts argue that climate change alone cannot explain the increased number of turtle strandings.

[03:40.05] Jeffrey Seminoff heads the Marine Turtle Ecology and Assessment Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

[03:54.66] He believes that the high number of strandings “probably results from the simple fact that there’s more turtles.”

[04:03.69] Seminoff said that the recovery of the turtle population and “success of conservation efforts at the nesting beaches” could explain the higher number of turtle strandings.

[04:26.27] Kennedy, the biologist, said that he has mixed feelings when the turtles are released back into the wild.

[04:28.93] “It’s bittersweet, because you spend so much time with them but ultimately every one of these guys getting back to the ocean helps the population.”

[04:42.47] Recently, Honey Bun – the turtle we met at the beginning of our report – and other turtles were taken to Florida.

[04:54.69] They were released into the water.

[04:57.35] Kelly Shaffer is with National Aquarium Baltimore, which worked with four other groups to organize the turtles’ release.

[05:07.18] She noted that she feels a sense of “joy and accomplishment” at “being able to put them back out there.”