{"id":498392,"date":"2026-01-07T07:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T07:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/498392\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T07:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T07:28:10","slug":"two-organizations-team-up-to-rescue-and-rehabilitate-cold-stunned-sea-turtles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/498392\/","title":{"rendered":"Two organizations team up to rescue and rehabilitate cold-stunned sea turtles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of frozen endangered\u00a0sea turtles<\/a>\u00a0wash up on the shores of the\u00a0East Coast\u00a0every year as ocean temperatures plummet from\u00a0winter\u00a0conditions.<\/p>\n

Most of them are nearly frozen to death, paralyzed and require immediate medical assistance. <\/p>\n

Some\u00a0turtles\u00a0even die from this experience.<\/p>\n

But two organizations are working together to save the turtles in time. <\/p>\n

In late fall,\u00a0The Greater Good Charities, a global nonprofit, and the\u00a0New England Aquarium\u00a0collaborate to rescue and rehabilitate hundreds of stranded sea turtles on the\u00a0Cape Cod\u00a0coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so cold and windy. I can\u2019t fathom how a turtle can sustain themselves in that water,\u201d Dr. Bryna Donnelly, executive vice president for Greater Good Charities, said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s why all these volunteers literally just have to walk the beach twice a day, sometimes at each tide. Pick them up and then bring them to their first step of recovery at New England Aquarium.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon arrival, the turtles are gradually warmed up over three days. <\/p>\n

They are then given a physical exam, X-rays, respiratory assessment, wound care and a swim trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u00a0really\u00a0don\u2019t look great when they get in,\u201d Adam Kennedy, director of rescue and rehabilitation at the\u00a0New England Aquarium, said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re\u00a0emaciated. These turtles look like they\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global nonprofit The Greater Good Charities and the\u00a0New England Aquarium have partnered to rescue and rehabilitate hundreds of stranded sea turtles along the\u00a0Cape Cod\u00a0coast. The Turtle Hospital\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The most critically ill turtles remain long-term at the aquarium\u2019s sea turtle hospital in\u00a0Quincy, Massachusetts, where they receive specialized treatment for chronic conditions.<\/p>\n

The stabilized\u00a0turtles\u00a0are transferred to partner organizations to continue rehabilitation, often traveling on emergency flights organized by Greater Good Charities to different centers across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to take every single turtle here and care for them until we can send them back to the ocean, but logistically we just don\u2019t have the space here,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

By working closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s (NOAA) Fisheries Service, the team is able to identify and secure facilities across the country that are willing to care for these cold-stunned turtles. More than 15 secondary rehabilitation facilities have stepped in this season to treat these animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year alone, the New England Aquarium\u00a0treated over 470 sea turtles while about 350 have been transported to centers throughout the Southeastern U.S. and East Coast by Greater Good Charities and other organizations. <\/p>\n

The majority of the turtles rescued need immediate medical assistance. The Turtle Hospital\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

At this time, 60 turtles remain at the hospital for long-term rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really does take a village,\u201d Dr. Donnelly said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNone of it would be possible without the collaboration of all these amazing organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to NOAA, cold-stunning is a condition when sea turtles become weak and inactive from the exposure to\u00a0cold temperatures. <\/p>\n

Many of these turtles become lethargic, causing them to float to the surface.<\/p>\n

Often referred to as \u201cstranding season,\u201d this typically happens between November and early January when\u00a0ocean\u00a0temperatures fall below 50 degrees.<\/p>\n

When the animals are exposed to freezing temperatures long-term, they may develop secondary health problems, or die.<\/p>\n

When the turtles arrive, they are gradually warmed up over three days. The Turtle Hospital\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

This has repeatedly occurred for decades in Cape Cod Bay, MA,\u00a0Long Island Sound, NY, Pamlico Sounds, NC, and in other areas that endure extreme cold weather events.<\/p>\n

For Cape Cod, \u201cstranding season\u201d came to a close on Dec. 21 after a week had gone by without any live turtles stranding.<\/p>\n

Kennedy tells\u00a0FOX Weather\u00a0that with the warming of the Gulf of\u00a0Maine, the aquarium has seen more turtles funnel into Cape Cod Bay each year. <\/p>\n

They predict that close to 1,000 turtles will experience cold-stunning by 2030.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs turtles want to migrate south, as cold waters come in, they can\u2019t\u2026because of the shape of\u00a0Massachusetts\u00a0with that kind of flexed arm.\u201d Kennedy said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for them\u2026it\u2019s counter-intuitive to go north and east and loop around the Cape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since there is no way to prevent cold-stunning, Kennedy and Dr. Donnelly have made it their mission to utilize the resources of the Greater Good Charities and New England Aquarium to do what they can to protect these animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see these animals, they should be dead. They should be done on the beach. They\u2019ve been cold for so long,\u201d Kennedy said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the fact that they survived that, they are amazing creatures.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of frozen endangered\u00a0sea turtles\u00a0wash up on the shores of the\u00a0East Coast\u00a0every year as ocean temperatures plummet from\u00a0winter\u00a0conditions.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":498393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3425,57234,159,67925,67,132,68,1154,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-498392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-rescues","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-turtles","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-us-news","16":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115852640478337227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}