Cold-stunned turtles, rehabbed on Long Island, back home in Atlantic

Four rehabilitated sea turtles in Hampton Bays and a fifth in Point Lookout returned home to the Atlantic Ocean Thursday night after animal rescue groups led them to the shoreline before they swam off.

About 6 p.m., the nonprofit New York Marine Rescue Center in Riverhead released four Kemp's ridley sea turtles into the waters off Tiana Beach and Pavilion as a crowd of more than 300 cheered. At Town Park Point Lookout in Hempstead Thursday night, the Hampton Bays-based Atlantic Marine Conservation Society sent Orzo, also a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, into the waters at Town Park Point Lookout in Hempstead.

Four of the five coldblooded, seagoing reptiles, narrow in width and about the same length as a small carry-on bag, had spent the past several months in rehabilitation after being cold-stunned — paralyzed by cold water temperatures chilled by climate change and "a number of factors," marine experts said.

"We’re really losing that seasonality between summer and winter; we barely had a fall this past October," said Maxine Montello, executive director of the New York Marine Rescue Center.

Montello pointed to climate change as "a huge issue." 

"Our waters were so warm in early October for the turtles," Montello said, "and then we had turtle stranding come November."

Three of the four turtles released in Hampton Bays spent between eight and nine months in the care of the Riverhead rescue center, according to Montello. The turtles, which migrate between Mexico and New England, were cold-stunned last November and December, Montello said.

Orzo, released Thursday night off Point Lookout after more than seven months of rehabilitation, had "some swelling in his joints" that required "laser therapy" after he was cold stunned, said Robert A. DiGiovanni Jr., executive director of the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, also known as AMSEAS.

"When a turtle is cold-stunned, there are a lot of things that can go wrong," DiGiovanni said. "There’s health things — pneumonia . . . things along those lines — they’re also spending a lot of time being knocked around in the surf . . . You might have other secondary wounds and infections."

Cold stunning is a growing concern for groups like the rescue center, Montello said. The center has cared for nearly 100 cold-stunned turtles so far this year, Montello noted, compared to about 20 annually during the early 2000s.

Once nights get colder, the turtles normally begin their journey south to warmer waters, typically between August and October, Montello said. More recently, the air and water temperatures are warmer later into the fall. By the time the turtles' instincts kick in and they begin swimming south, Montello said, there is "not enough time for them to move" before the ocean temperatures falls dangerously low, leaving the turtles paralyzed, susceptible to predators and in danger of dying from the cold.

DiGiovanni agreed water temperatures are certainly warmer but "we don’t have a great handle" of turtle cold-stunning rates "prior to the warming."

Climate change could be impacting sea turtles in the New York and New England area through "a number of factors," he said, and that "we’re still trying to investigate more thoroughly."

Both DiGiovanni and Montello said sea turtles also face other hazards, like encounters with vessels and eating plastics strewed on beaches.

Karen Testa, the executive director of Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons, which rehabilitates turtles that live in New York and surrounding waters year-round, said cold-stunning falls lower on her list of concerns compared to the risk turtles face from automobile encounters. However, she noted, cold-stunning on New York’s turtles is human induced.

"All our turtles are buried in the sand in January and February," Testa said. "We get a lot of them cold-stunned washing up because a dredging machine digs them up, they’re out of their hibernation environment and they wash up cold-stunned"

DiGiovanni advised if Long Islanders see healthy sea turtles, they should email AMSEAS at sightings@amseas.org. Sick, stranded or dead turtles should be reported to the New York Stranding Response Hotline at 631-369-9829.