The staff of the wildlife sanctuary Mass Audubon discovered on the morning of Friday, November 23, off the coast of Cape cod about 190 of dead marine turtles that reach the saving shore prevented them for extremely low water temperatures, according to NBC News.
«Many of the turtles were found frozen, they remain in coastal waters. I personally got 2-3 of these out of the water,» — said the Director of the reserve Bob Prescott, adding that this season was found more than 400 dead turtles were not exposed to too low temperature of water.
Fortunately, says Prescott, since the discovery of the frozen turtles the water temperature was «warmer», which allowed some animals to get safely to shore — about a dozen were rescued and sent to New England Aquarium. Currently, the majority of turtles entering the area of Cape cod, have a tropical or subtropical character: prefer a water temperature of 23 to 29°C.
Explanation according to the researchers, these types changed when they begin to migrate. Naturally, this prevented them to successfully overcome the designated nature path. It is known that turtles migrate from the North to the South or in the opposite direction, following a narrow temperature band. In the 90-ies of the sea turtles came to the area of Cape cod in October, but now they began to approach the shore for the most part in November, when the water gets in this area is too cold for them.
«Sea turtles are moving further North along our coast, or South in the southern hemisphere, when water warmed up and it allows them to expand their habitats, says biologist studying sea turtles, and a research associate of the California Academy of Sciences, Wallace J. Nichols. — So, when the water temperature is too quickly changing from warm to colder, turtles, faced with this problem, definitely get in trouble».
Migration of sea turtles is their seasonal journey for hundreds and even thousands of kilometers needed for nutrition and oviposition. But climate change has a strong impact on sea turtles and their migration patterns in both directions. Adopted in recent years, the efforts of environmental organizations has helped to stabilize the population of sea turtles has allowed them to get to the places they have not visited in years. But they were not prepared for quick temperature changes in these areas.
Unfortunately, frozen turtles, discovered Friday morning, reserve staff could not be revived. Some of them were out of sight of the Atlantic Ridley, which is currently under threat of extinction.
«The problem is that they cannot get out of Cape Cod Bay in time — they just confuse the shape of the Bay,» says Prescott. Mass Audubon still don’t know how many turtles froze to death in places such as Brewster (mA), where the beaches were covered with ice.
Previously, we reported that due to a fire in California killed and injured thousands of animals.
