Cape
Cod Times -December 29, 2012- WELLFLEET — Massachusetts Audubon Society staff
and volunteers continued to find sea turtles washing up on Cape Cod beaches
during the holidays.
Nearly
a dozen of these tropical turtles came ashore, their metabolism virtually shut
down as a result of exposure to cold water, until they could do little but
float and get pushed around by onshore winds.
Wellfleet
Bay Wildlife Sanctuary staff members said this year's total of 350 threatened
or endangered sea turtles that have been recovered on the Cape shattered the
past record of 278 set in 1999 and is the highest since they started keeping
track 30 years ago.
In a
statement Friday, sanctuary director Robert Prescott said the dramatic increase
was likely because there were a lot more turtles in Cape Cod Bay this year.
Hurricane
Sandy also helped drive many to shore in late October.
Other
records were broken this year as well, including 96 loggerhead turtles
retrieved from beaches, while turtle rescuers might see only a dozen in any
given year.
Also,
a record 228 endangered Kemp's ridley turtles were recovered, and 23 rescued
green turtles nearly double the previous record.
The
normal survival rate for these rescued sea turtles is 45 percent, but 65
percent survived this year, most sent to the New England Aquarium's
turtle rehabilitation center in Quincy, with some going to the
National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay.
The
New England Aquarium had to ship 75 relatively healthy or stable turtles to
other facilities to make room for new arrivals.
In
the statement, Prescott said sea turtles may continue to wash up on Cape
beaches late into January because water temperatures have been unseasonably
warm.
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