Conservationists
record unusually high number of strandings
Many of
turtles are critically endangered Kemp’s ridley species
Associated
Press in Welfleet, Massachusetts
Sun 25
Nov 2018 14.30 GMTLast modified on Mon 26 Nov
2018 14.16 GMT
An
unusual number of sea turtles have washed ashore in New England in the recent
cold snap, many dead and appearing to have been “flash-frozen”.
Many of
the turtles are from a critically endangered species called Kemp’s ridley,
Robert Prescott, director of Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay
Wildlife Sanctuary, told
the Cape Cod Times.
The
number of stranded turtles has already surpassed what is considered normal for
the season. Prescott told the Times that at least 219 turtles washed ashore
from Wednesday to Friday on Cape Cod beaches. He told CNN 173 of those turtles
had died.
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All but
one of the 82 turtles found on Thursday, the Thanksgiving holiday, were frozen
solid and dead, Prescott said, due to unseasonably cold temperatures.
“It was like they were flash-frozen, flippers
in all weird positions like they were swimming,” he said.
On Friday,
temperatures were a few degrees higher and that along with a slight shift in
wind direction, meant more turtles found alive, Prescott told the paper.
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