Cold-Stunned Turtle Stranding Season Underway With Washashores in Dennis

Photo: Reginald Allan of South Dennis found a cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley at Bayview Beach, courtesy Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

DENNIS – The cold-stunned stranding season officially began Wednesday as two green sea turtles and one Kemp’s ridley turtle washed up on beaches in Dennis.

All the animals were recovered by staff members from the Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

They were taken to the New England Aquarium’s Animal Care Center in Quincy.

A young green turtle discovered in the morning at Chapin Beach was the season’s first live cold-stunned turtle.

A second green turtle was discovered shortly afterwards at Howe’s Beach and a Kemp’s ridley with visible wounds was called in from Bayview Beach.

According to Mass Audubon, green turtles were also the first turtles to strand on Cape Cod last fall.

Experts say the species is less tolerant of cold water than Kemp’s ridleys and loggerheads, which also commonly strand here after becoming hypothermic.

Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary director Bob Prescott said it’s a strange start to the season.

“The bay (Cape Cod Bay) only just yesterday hit 52 degrees. Strandings typically don’t occur until the water reaches 50 degrees or colder,” he said. 

Prescott also said the wind hasn’t been very strong in the last 24 hours. Turtles usually strand during strong winds, especially after cold fronts have passed through the area.

“We weren’t really expecting live ones until the wind really came of the west-north westerly direction, which we’re expecting this weekend,” said Prescott, who doesn’t know yet if the early strandings are a harbinger of a big season ahead.

They may find out later this weekend when the winds are expected to increase in advance of Thanksgiving.

Endangered and threatened sea turtles, which feed in Cape Cod Bay during the summer, become cold-stunned after becoming trapped by the Cape’s hook-shaped geography.

Unable to migrate south to warmer waters, the turtles’ body temperatures fall and their systems start to shut down.

Last year nearly 500 sea turtles cold-stunned washed up along the Cape’s beaches.

The record number of turtles that stranded is more than 1200 in 2014.

It’s unclear why the number of strandings has been rising but warmer waters in the Gulf of Maine and increased nesting productivity for some sea turtle species may be two factors, according to experts.

By MATT PITTA, CapeCod.com News Director