Dr. Donna Shaver, who leads sea turtle conservation efforts, gave us the inside scoop
Thousands of sea turtles washed up on the Texas coast last week, stunned by the frigid weather that paralyzed the state.
So far, 8,165 cold-stunned sea turtles have drifted helplessly onto the shores near Corpus Christi and further south, Dr. Donna Shaver, who leads the sea turtle conservation effort at Padre Island National Seashore, told KCM Friday. That’s the largest cold-stunning event recorded in the U.S. since researchers began tracking the phenomenon in 1980.
Cold stunning occurs when temperatures quickly drop, making it impossible for the cold-blooded reptiles to move to warmer waters. Their circulation slows, they become lethargic and in some cases become sick and die.
Shaver says cold-stunning occurs almost annually at Padre Island, a barrier island near the state’s southern tip, with large events occurring once every three or four years. The winter of 2017-2018 set the record for the largest cold-stunning event in the region, when 3,702 sea turtles were recovered. That record was smashed over the last week.
In more than 40 years patrolling the coastline, Shaver said she’s never seen anything like this.
“It’s off the charts in terms of the numbers,” she said.
The only event that even comes close was in 1895. That year, records were set all over the state for the coldest stretch in February — and were only topped last week. The cold snap that year “decimated” the green sea turtle population, a species now considered threatened, Shaver said.
However, green sea turtles are starting to rebound in Texas, which makes this cold-stunning event particularly devastating.
“This was literally the perfect storm for cold-stunning,” Shaver said.
In 2019, turtles from Mexico came streaming into Laguna Madre, and thanks to a mild 2020, Shaver’s team didn’t find a single cold-stunned turtle that year. That may have been why so many turtles, which would normally migrate to warmer waters, decided to take their chances by staying put in the shallow lagoon where they were particularly vulnerable to the sudden freeze.
“It would have wiped out almost every green turtle that existed on Laguna Madre, had we not rescued them,” Shaver said.
Staff from the National Park Service and volunteers from all over the state have been out combing the beaches, looking for cold-stunned turtles. Between 40% to 50% of them have been found alive and taken to facilities, including the South Padre Island Convention Center, where they’re lined up end to end, covering “every bit of floor space, garage floor space, office space” that they can, Shaver said.
The ones that recover and are able to pass a swim test will soon be released into the Gulf of Mexico, where warmer water has been identified. That should clear room for the turtles that are still washing up along the coast.
“We’re still in the thick of it,” Shaver said.
Written and reported by Rachel Uda.
