Dramatic Photos Show Thousands Of Stunned Sea Turtles Rescued From Texas Storm

The turtles have been loaded into the back of a Subaru. They’ve been laid out in row after row on the deck of a ship. And the stunned creatures have been arrayed by the thousands in buildings without power amid the powerful winter storm that has blasted Texas with frigid temperatures this week.

Wildlife groups and volunteers have pulled thousands of threatened sea turtles from the waters off the Texas coast in recent days amid the paralyzing storm.

Dramatic photos show turtles hauled from frigid waters, suffering from what’s known as cold-stunning. The phenomenon happens when a sea turtle faces long exposure to cold water temperatures, often below 50 degrees. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration noted  that cold-stunned turtles “become lethargic and are eventually unable to swim causing them to float at the surface.”

Widespread events can affect hundreds or thousands of turtles at a time, and if they are not returned to warmer waters or rescued, they can become seriously ill and die.

Sea Turtle Inc., a nonprofit animal rescue group on Texas’ South Padre Island, said Tuesday it had rescued more than 2,500 turtles in recent days. Wildlife volunteers have packed as many turtles as they can into the backs of their cars to ferry them to care facilities. When Sea Turtle Inc. ran out of space, the group began using South Padre Island’s convention center as an overflow site to help nurse them back to health.

Wendy Knight, the executive director of Sea Turtle Inc., said it was the largest cold-stun event in more than a decade. But she warned Monday that conditions were dire. Like millions of Texans, the facilities housing the turtles lost power after the storm caused the state’s power grid to nearly collapse.

She said many of the animals the group had rescued could soon die if power isn’t restored.

“All of these efforts will be in vain if we do not soon get power restored,” Knight said in a video on Facebook . “We need our power back on.”