- Amos Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) in Port Aransas
- Took in nearly cold-stunned turtles 250 turtles this week
- Nursing them back to health through warming and swim tests
The ARK in Port Aransas is one of the many organizations that stepped up during the cold weather this week to rescue cold-stunned sea turtles.
Sea turtles become lethargic and unable to swim when the temperature drops below 50 degrees. Some wash up on shore, and some are rescued by boaters.
The ARK, with the help of the Mid Coast Sea Turtle Rescue are in the process of rehabbing nearly 250 turtles.
"Most of our turtles are coming from Keep Aransas County Beautiful and the Mid Coast Sea Turtle rescue network up in Port O’Connor." ARK Staff Director Andrew Orgill said. "So they’re going out on boats up in the bays out of Port O’Connor where there is a lot of sea turtles out there. And being able to rescue those guys and bring them down to us."
Volunteers drove the turtles down to Port Aransas from the Port O'Connor area in seven cars and even a U-Haul van on Thursday, Jan. 18. Even more turtles were delivered on Friday, Jan. 19.
While many turtles were rescued from the waters of the Gulf Coast this week, it was not nearly as bad as the cold stun event three years ago.
"So in 2021, the ARK took in about 1400 turtles. And about 900 of them were alive," Orgill said.
Many careful steps are taken to get the turtles ready to go back into their natural habitat.
"They’re in a room that's heated but not too hot. They’re warming up just a couple of degrees every day. We gradually bring their temperature up kind of at a good, slow rate, as not to shock their system in the opposite direction. So after 24 hours, we’ll put them in the shallow water. We’ll kind of do what's called a swim test for them," Orgill said.
"We’ll monitor each one. We'll make sure they’re lifting their head and breathing and swimming okay. And at that point, they’ll stay in the tanks afterward. And usually, we only have to have them in care for a couple days. Once the water temperatures out in the gulf are warm enough we;ll release them off the beach back into the warmer waters of the Gulf," Orgill said.
Orgill and the rest of the staff and volunteers from the ARK are extremely thankful to their partners and volunteers who helped transport the cold-stunned turtles.
"We definitely appreciate everyone’s help. We would not have saved this many turtles without everyone," Orgill said.
Orgill is not expecting too many more cold-stunned turtles to come in, as the weather has started to warm back up.
If anyone happens to come across a cold-stunned turtle washed up on shore, call the statewide turtle rescue hot line 1-866-TURTLE5.
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