1,200 Turtles Have Washed Ashore In Cape Cod — And No One Knows Why

[n2doc]

Weak, immobile, and close to death, the turtles wash limply on to the sand. The wind and waves draw them up to the shore, where their cold bodies — incapacitated by the frigid, late-autumn ocean — will lie prone on the beach, unable to move or defend themselves.

Here, they can do nothing but await rescue.

Each week since mid-November, staff members and volunteers from the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in South Wellfleet, Mass., have diligently patrolled the shoreline, both day and night, searching for these stranded sea turtles, which have washed up on the shore in droves this year — a mysterious event that has left wildlife experts scratching their heads.

Every year, a few sea turtles — usually 200 at most, in recent years — linger a little too long in Cape Cod Bay after the rest of their brethren have drifted back out to sea in search of warmer waters. These turtles somehow miss their cue to leave and end up staying behind as the waters cool.

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-200-turtles-washed-ashore-135100531.html

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Oh

. We have a rescued painted back - his bottom shell was crushed when he came to us. They are so much fun to watch. Hope these guys are okay.

[Warpy]

2. Waters have likely been staying warmer longer than they used to

and then that first arctic front comes through and things change quickly, too quickly for the turtles to react.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I'm glad they've been able to save so many of these creatures. Warm water and food usually does it, then they can be trucked down south where the water is warmer.

The number of them is likely to increase as weather patterns change. Something tells me that turtles are not fast learners when it comes to climate change.

[DFW]

4. I suspect that is exactly what is happening

I have been going back to Cape Cod every year for the last 30, and the water at the ocean-side beaches off Truro has been getting warmer for years now. We are seeing way more seals, now in the thousands, and great white sharks that feed on them are now venturing north of Chatham. I have never seen a sea turtle there, so 1200 stranded within a short amount of time is VERY scary. Starfish, which we used to see in great numbers on the bay side, have vanished totally, as have the horseshoe crabs.

[tclambert]

8. Turtles have been around for 220 million years.

Ice ages. Asteroid impacts. Continental breakup. Somehow, they survived.

[FailureToCommunicate]

11. "I WILL survive!" Somehow.

[raccoon]

14. People--some people--are even slower than the turtles. good post. nt

[NuclearDem]

3. Blamed on Fukushima in 3...2...1...

[branford]

12. If turtles are exposes to radiation, I thought this happens . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamera

[link:|

[George II]

13. Further down someone went Fukushima one better....blamed Obama.

[Omaha Steve]

5. Thanks for posting

K&R!

[peoli]

6. Obama approved offshore sonic testing for oil exploration

Off the east coast for the first time ever. Maybe that's why.

[Omaha Steve]

7. Stop Baby Sea Turtle Poachers

https://therainforestsite.greatergood.com/store/trs/item/63715/?adId=145780&placementId=399052&origin=ctg_bcs_home_from_grg_sitenav

[ffr]

9. The European honey bee has the same problem navigating

Where once it had a clear direction, it wanders until it runs out of energy and dies.

They say that life is a product of its environment. Can the environment be giving us ques?

[vlyons]

10. They are starving to death

Same thing happening off Australia where the sea grass is dying because the salinity in the water is about half of what it should be. As the ice melts, the salinty is diluted by the fresh, salt-free ice melting. Sea grass needs the salinity at a certain level to survive.