Cold-stunned turtles heading to local aquariums

Strawberries aren't the only things feeling the cold.

Frigid waters stranded 93 sea turtles along the beaches of Florida's east coast on Wednesday.

The Florida Aquarium Animal Rescue Team will rescue six to eight of sea turtles. They will board and rehabilitate the creatures until the waters warm up.

"There's not anything wrong with them," Florida Aquarium spokesmanTom Wagner said. "We just need to warm them up."

The sea turtles are "cold stunned" said Jeni Hatter, spokeswoman for the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which is also helping with the rescue efforts.

Because the sea turtles are cold-blooded reptiles (they do not maintain a regular body temperature) they take on the temperature around them and go into a somewhat state of shock.

"They stop swimming, they stop eating, and just start to float," Hatter said, and added that they are taking in eight turtles today. "Every facility that can take in turtles are doing it."

Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission discovered the animals and contacted area aquariums for assistance in the warm-up; they received close to 100 calls from passersby about the turtles. They range in size from that of a dinner plate to up to 150 pounds.

"What we think of as cold is fine by them," said Allen Foley, wildlife biologist for Fish & Wildlife. "But, what's really cold stuns them."

The sea turtles most affected are young and smaller in size than their loggerhead peers. Those stunned were found in Mosquito Bay in Brevard County and St. Joseph's Bay in Gulf County where the water is shallow and water temperatures dropped to 40s, Foley said.

"It doesn't happen every year, but it happens," he said. "This time we'll keep them for about a week until the water warms up."

The average water temperature this time of year is in the mid 60s to 70s, Wagner said. With the duration of these below average temperatures, he said, Florida may see considerably more sea turtles stranding on the beach in the days ahead. Space for these turtles may become an issue, he said.