Roughly a week after thousands of comatose turtles were rescued from the freezing waters off the Texas coast, volunteers have begun the process of returning the rehabilitated creatures back to the sea.
Sea Turtle Inc. in South Padre Island, which saved the lives of more than 5,000 cold-stunned sea turtles, shared a video of their efforts on Facebook Sunday. After an exhaustive 24-hour effort that went through the night and has just ended this morning, Sea Turtle Inc. was successfully able to release more than 2,200 previously cold-stunned turtles into the open ocean of the Gulf of Mexico, the nonprofit wrote alongside the clip. We still have lots of work to do, but we are rejuvenated with passion at having seen our first released turtles swim away.
The record cold and snow in Texas didn t just catch the state s human inhabitants off-guard, it threatened its endangered sea turtle population.
Volunteers rescued thousands of the endangered amphibians across the Gulf region last week that were effectively paralyzed by the freezing temperatures, preventing them from eating or keeping their heads above water.
Wildlife officials in Corpus Christi recently returned hundreds of sea turtles to the ocean and used slides to return them to the wild.
The gentle creatures were placed one at a time on a wet slide, zoomed back into the water and then swam away.
The Texas Sealife Center says it released more than 200 sea turtles on Monday and Tuesday alone.
Including some cold-stunned green sea turtles.
I don t know about you, but most people I know love sea turtles. Maybe the super cool character of Crush on
Disney s
Finding Nemo contributed a bit. But even before, there s been something endearing about these creatures for many of us.
(Check out the photo gallery below to get a good look at them during and after the rescue.)
Because of the mild winters experienced around the Gulf of Mexico in the recent past, thousands of sea turtles were delayed in the shallow bays. And outside of last week s extreme low temps, this winter had been relatively mild, too.
Sea turtles released back into the Gulf of Mexico after weeklong rehabilitation
Cold stunned turtles recover
and last updated 2021-02-23 21:06:39-05
PORT ARANSAS, Texas â The Southern Responder backed into the channel and settled at Gulf Copperâs dock between two oil platforms. In a couple of hours, the blue and white oil-spill response vessel would be loaded with green sea turtles. It would then sail some 20 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, where the reptiles would be set free.
The turtles had spent a week rehabilitating at the Texas State Aquariumâs facility in Corpus Christi. They were fitted with microchips in their left front flippers, swim tested, and declared ready for re-entry to their natural habitat.