Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Cold snap traps threatened turtles

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Saturday, December 16, 2000

Cold snap traps threatened turtles
Four animals suffering from hypothermia rescued from local beach
By Dan Parker
Caller-Times
The four sea turtles could barely move when electrical plant workers found the animals in the cold predawn darkness in a channel off the Laguna Madre.
   The workers paged Tony Amos, a research associate with the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. Leaving about 2:40 a.m., Amos drove from his home in Port Aransas to Flour Bluff, picked up each of the lethargic animals in his hands and loaded them into his pickup.
   "A normal sea turtle flails its front limbs, it flaps its flippers when you pick it up," Amos said. "These were much slower in their motions. They were more or less still."

How to help

What to do if you find a sick or injured sea turtle: Immediately call a wildlife rescuer. South of Packery Channel, call biologist Donna Shaver-Miller at 949-8173, ext. 226. North of Packery Channel, call Tony Amos by pager at (361) 224-0813 or (361) 224-0814. Do not touch the turtle, but stay with the animal until a rescuer arrives, if possible.
To donate to Animal Rehabilitation Keep, or ARK: Make checks payable to the Univ. of Texas Marine Science Institute and specify that the donation is for the ARK. Mail checks to: Univ. of Texas Marine Science Institute; 750 Channel View Drive; Port Aransas, TX 78373

   Amos said the animals were "cold stunned," suffering hypothermia because the water in the Laguna Madre was about 50 degrees. He said he and co-workers have rescued 11 cold-stunned sea turtles since early November - more than during the same period most years - because cold fronts have blown in cooler and earlier this year.
   The four animals Amos found Friday were 10- to 25-pound green sea turtles, classified as a threatened species by the federal government.
   After loading the turtles in his pickup, Amos drove them to the Animal Rehabilitation Keep, or ARK, a sea animal rehabilitation facility he operates at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. At the ARK, the turtles were put in fiberglass tanks filled with 75-degree seawater.
   Besides the 11 green sea turtles that were cold stunned, the ARK on Friday had 18 other sea turtles getting over illnesses and recovering from injuries they suffered from getting tangled in manmade debris floating in local waters.
   Amos has room for maybe six more sea turtles, and if he gets many more, he might have to start sending new arrivals to the Texas State Aquarium or to a facility in the Port Isabel area.
   The ARK, which runs its operations with donations from the public, especially needs donations now, Amos said.
   "We've got a lot of mouths to feed," Amos said. "We have to buy squid."
   Cold stunning mainly affects sea turtles in bays and not so much in the open Gulf of Mexico, said Donna Shaver-Miller, a biologist and station leader at the Padre Island Field Research Station at Padre Island National Seashore.
   "If they have not left, their activities slow down," said Shaver-Miller, who also is Texas coordinator of the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network. "If it's too cold, they can get immobilized."
   Amos, who has state and federal permits for handling and rehabilitating endangered species, said he will keep the cold-stunned sea turtles for a few months, feeding them squid and possibly algae. He expects all of the animals to live.
   When waters get warm enough, Amos will release the animals in the wild - something he has done many times with rehabilitated wildlife. He still enjoys it.
   "They immediately disappear in the water and maybe stick their head out once to breathe. And then they're gone. It's a great feeling."

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