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SUFFOLK COUNTY (WABC) — We’re not the only ones struggling with a shift to cold temperatures.
The New York Marine Rescue Center in Riverhead says it is helping a record number of sea turtles on Long Island who are simply stunned by cold temperatures.
On a private path, Senior Biologist Jill Pryor first started looking for turtles on a remote stretch of beach in Cutchogue.
“We have really long stretches of beaches so sometimes we have to walk pretty far,” Pryor said.
With laser focus, they look for cold-stunned turtles, who around this time of year after a longer than usual summer, never got the cue from mother nature to migrate.
Now the temperatures have dipped too low and too fast.
“They have pneumonia, they have shell damage. Some of them have heartbeats of 1 beat per minute,” Maxine Montello NY Marine Rescue Center Executive Director said.
“So we’ll touch the corner of their eye, which I’m not seeing a response, But if I touch his flipper he does have a small response there,” Pryor said.
What follows at the rescue Center is a sort of 5-day triage where the turtles, oftentimes on medication, need to slowly have their temperatures brought back to normal.
This season which is busy because of the rapid drop in temperature, they’ve already rescued 44 turtles since Friday.
This is Pryor’s 6th call in just 4 hours and it’s for the most critically endangered species of turtles known as Kemp’s Ridley.
“They’re the most endangered species in the world,” Montello said.
Thanks to residents calling the center’s hotline, the old stunned turtles have already been rescued in Sag Harbor, Southampton, and the Northshore.
One turtle’s temperature’s only at 2.1 degrees Celsius, but hopefully, like the others, he’s a fighter.
To make a report call the 24-hour stranding hotline at 631-369-9829.
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