This cold-stun stranding event is the largest recorded along the Texas shoreline since record-keeping began in 1980, reports Texas Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network (STSSN) coordinator Donna Shaver, and is over three times the previous Texas record set in January 2010.

The Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network (STSSN) was formally established in 1980 to collect information on and document strandings of marine turtles along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts. The network encompasses the coastal areas of the eighteen-state region from Maine to Texas, and includes portions of the U.S. Caribbean.

Brutally cold
Dozens of volunteers quickly responded to the stranding event and brought the stranded turtles to rescue facilities to recuperate. . “Rescuing cold-stunned sea turtles is tough,” admitted county extension agent Tony Reisenger, who heads the Sea Grant group. “It’s brutally cold out and these volunteers have to wait until low tide and then wade out into the cold water and mud to retrieve these animals. Some of the turtles weigh more than 100 pounds and it can prove exhausting to the volunteers to get the turtles back onto shore and into vehicles.”

Luckily their efforts paid off. Of the initial 860 rescued turtles, 750 survived and were healthy enough to release the next day. A majority of the turtles were juveniles less than twelve years of age and between 10 to 30 pounds, according to Jeff George of Sea Turtle, Inc. The largest rescued turtle weighed in at 150 pounds. Strandings continued for a few days with a final count of approximately 1600 sea turtles. Nearly 1050 of these were live strandings, and 980 rescued turtles have been released into the Gulf.

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