NYT: Cape Cod Mystery: A Surge of Stranded (endangered) Turtles

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/13/science/a-cape-cod-mystery-hundreds-of-sea-turtles-stranded-on-beaches.html?partner=EXCITE&ei=5043




Sea turtles rescued on Cape Cod were fed at the New England Aquarium hospital in Quincy, Mass. This year, hundreds have been stunned by the cold. Credit Kayana Szymczak for The New York Times

By JAMES GORMANDEC. 12, 2014

WELLFLEET, Mass. — For as long as anyone knows, young sea turtles have ventured up the East Coast, leaving warm seas to feed on crabs and other prey. And some of them have lingered too long in northern waters and been stunned when the season turns cold.

Around this time of year, volunteers regularly patrol the beaches of Cape Cod Bay to rescue turtles that wash up at high tide — six of seven species of sea turtles are endangered — so they can be rehabilitated and relocated to warmer shores in the South.

But this year the usual trickle of stranded turtles has turned into a flood, and nobody seems to know why.


Donna Bragg, a park ranger in Barnstable, with two Kemp's ridley sea turtles she found. Since mid-November, volunteers on turtle patrol have found nearly 1,200, almost all young Kemp’s ridley turtles, the most endangered of the six species found in the area. Credit Kayana Szymczak for The New York Times


Since mid-November, volunteers on turtle patrol have found nearly 1,200, almost all young Kemp’s ridley turtles, the most endangered of turtle species. That is almost three times as many as in the previous record year, and many more times the number in an average year. More turtles are being found every day.

FULL story at link.

Correction: December 12, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the total number of species of sea turtles. There are seven species, not six