A training session for volunteers helping with cold-stunned turtle patrol this winter will be held at 10 am, Tuesday, Dec. 3, in the Ocracoke Community Center.
The session will be conducted by NPS, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, and Network for Endangered Sea Turtles (NEST) staff and volunteers.
“We will discuss turtle patrols and turtle transport,” said Frank Welles, a NEST volunteer. “Also, there are some significant changes this year to documentation requirements, forms and data entry. So, there is a lot to talk about.”
Cold-stunning occurs, predominantly with juvenile green and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, that have been feeding in the Pamlico Sound in the winter when cold fronts arrive, reducing the water temperature and sending sea turtles into a state of shock, said Matt Janson, biological science technician for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
As ectotherms (cold-blooded creatures), sea turtles’ metabolism is dependent on the ambient temperature, and below 52 degrees Fahrenheit the turtle’s critical systems begin to shut down.
Living, “cold-stunned” sea turtles are gathered by NPS staff and volunteers and transported to the South Dock for ferry transit to Hatteras Island, where additional volunteers assist us in getting the turtles to the North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island in Manteo.
At the aquarium, cold-stunned sea turtles are admitted to the Sea Turtle Assistance and Rehabilitation (STAR) Center, where the team has good rates of success in reviving cold stunned sea turtles collected by volunteers.
“While there is no way to know yet whether this will be a “big year” for cold stunned sea turtles, with the effects of climate change accelerating extreme temperature swings in our area, sea turtles in the waters surrounding Ocracoke Island remain vulnerable, and it is better for us to be prepared with an adequate squadron of volunteers this winter,” Janson said.
Turtles that are successfully rehabbed at the STAR Center are later released back into the Atlantic off the Outer Banks.
