Florida
Florida Cold Stuns Sea Turtles | Weather.com
This cold-stunned sea turtle is one of 100 brought to the University of Florida Sea Turtle Hospital at Whitney Lab in St. Augustine, Florida, amid frigid weather from Jan. 22 to Jan. 26, 2025.
(UF Turtle Hospital via Facebook.)
- Cold-stunned sea turtles can become lethargic and unable to swim.
- It can happen when water temperatures drop into the low 50s.
- Dozens were rescued amid a winter storm and cold that hit Florida.
People weren’t the only ones feeling the chill during a recent winter storm that froze parts of the Sunshine State.
Dozens of cold-stunned sea turtles were rescued after temperatures plunged.
An ‘exhausting and relentless’ five days:
In one case, two officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC, rushed to pull 30 turtles from the waters around Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico in the Florida Panhandle.
In another, the University of Florida Sea Turtle Hospital at Whitney Laboratory received 100 patients from Jan. 22 through Jan. 26. The facility is located in St. Augustine, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.
“Our hospital shifted into full emergency mode to triage cold-stunned green sea turtles,” a social media post from the lab read, calling the mission “exhausting and relentless.”
Each morning, FWC personnel arrived to take the turtles to other facilities in order to make room for more.
The lab noted the uptick in rescues was expected based on the weather forecast.
Cold water is dangerous for sea turtles:
Winter Storm Enzo brought frigid air into the Southeast, causing the northern Gulf Coast of Florida to reach lows well below freezing. When the water temperatures drop even as low as the 50s, sea turtles are susceptible to becoming “cold-stunned,” weather.com digital meteorologist Sara Tonks, who also holds a masters in marine science, said Wednesday.
When that happens, they can become lethargic and unable to swim.
“When a turtle becomes cold-stunned, the most important thing is to get the turtle out of the cold water as quickly as possible,” Tonks said. “Rescue teams have to act fast to get as many turtles into controlled environments so that they can be safely warmed back up.”
The turtles rescued following Winter Storm Enzo were taken to facilities where trained sea turtle veterinarians can take care of them until they are healthy enough to be released back into the wild.
Winter Storm Enzo was historic for Florida:
The state’s all-time 24-hour snowfall record was shattered when more than 9 inches of snow was measured on Jan. 22 in the Florida Panhandle town of Milton. The previous record was 4 inches set in 1954 in the same area.
Beaches were covered in snow, as was Interstate 10, the main east-west corridor across North Florida.
Nearly half of the state’s 67 school districts were shut down for at least one day because of the storm. Some were closed for the entire week.
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Weather.com staff writer Jan Childs covers breaking news and features related to weather, space, climate change, the environment and everything in between.