Tampa, Fla. • More than 1,000 sea turtles stunned by unusually cold weather have been rescued from waters off Florida’s Panhandle this month.
U.S. Geological Survey sea turtle expert Margaret Lamont said cold-stunned sea turtles began appearing in St. Joseph Bay in early January as freezing temperatures gripped the region and water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico plummeted.
“It’s now over 1,000, maybe up to 1,100,” she told the Tampa Bay Times, referencing the number of turtles that had been collected so far from the bay.
Lamont says many of the stunned animals are juvenile green turtles, along with some Kemp’s ridleys, one hawksbill and a few loggerheads.