Updated: 23 hours 46 minutes ago
(Nov. 26) -- Marine biologists on Cape Cod have spent their Thanksgiving holiday rescuing a group of hungry, cold and lost souls in their community: sea turtles.
Dozens of rare, endangered sea turtles washed up on the Massachusetts peninsula this week, disoriented and suffering from hypothermia. Their confusion could be because they thought they were heading for the sunny Gulf of Mexico.
Kemp's Ridley turtles are a unique species that breeds in colder, northern waters and then migrates south to its primary habitat in the Gulf of Mexico. The turtles were severely affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill this past spring, after which scientists began collecting their eggs to move to safer waters.
On the turtles' annual voyage southward, a handful of them get caught each year on the hook-like arm of Cape Cod, which juts out into the Atlantic. So every autumn, volunteers walk the area's beaches to rescue the forlorn sea turtles, whose shells are jet black, with pink translucent bellies.
But so far the number of turtles found in the past month -- 41 and counting -- is the most scientists say they've ever seen in one season. Twenty-five turtles were rescued on Thanksgiving alone. Fierce northwesterly winds ripped through Boston two days ago, churning up huge swells that buoyed the turtles ashore.
Dozens of rare, endangered sea turtles washed up on the Massachusetts peninsula this week, disoriented and suffering from hypothermia. Their confusion could be because they thought they were heading for the sunny Gulf of Mexico.
Kemp's Ridley turtles are a unique species that breeds in colder, northern waters and then migrates south to its primary habitat in the Gulf of Mexico. The turtles were severely affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill this past spring, after which scientists began collecting their eggs to move to safer waters.
Yoon S. Byun, Boston Globe / Landov
Volunteers use a fetal heart monitor on a Kemp-Ridley sea turtle suffering from hypothermia after 15 of them were brought to the New England Aquarium's new Animal Care Center in Quincy, MA, for treatment on Thursday.
On the turtles' annual voyage southward, a handful of them get caught each year on the hook-like arm of Cape Cod, which juts out into the Atlantic. So every autumn, volunteers walk the area's beaches to rescue the forlorn sea turtles, whose shells are jet black, with pink translucent bellies.
But so far the number of turtles found in the past month -- 41 and counting -- is the most scientists say they've ever seen in one season. Twenty-five turtles were rescued on Thanksgiving alone. Fierce northwesterly winds ripped through Boston two days ago, churning up huge swells that buoyed the turtles ashore.
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