Floridians Stunned

We humansput on layers of clothes, but our local turtle residents weren’t so lucky.  Florida’s temperatures remained cold for along period cooling off the lagoons that help moderate our local climate.  Around January 4th, severalturtles we rescued in the Mosquito Lagoon areas.  The next day even more, and by Wednesday over30 turtles went to rehab to get warmed. Word spread that we may have a problem. We did.

STPS gotinvolved that Thursday gathering supplies and volunteers to go to The MarineScience Center in Volusia County where turtles were on the floor in bins.  The cold stayed with us and as the lagoontemperatures dropped in our area, the office began to get busy.  For the next week STPS volunteers and friendsspent 12 hour days collecting, marking, warming, transporting and thenreleasing turtles. This was happening all over the state.

Mike Splitt,STPS’s own weather person, speaking at the February 2010 general meeting,explained how the weather teamed up to cool the turtles.  Karrie Minch, Stranding coordinator for FWC,followed up with an excellent presentation of stories and numbers from theevent.  Some refer to the period as “WhenFlorida Froze Over”.

Where and how many: The data below was provided aspreliminary data and is subject to adjustment by sources at FWC .

County                          Turtles                      Dead

Escambia                              29                           22

Bay                                        69                           57

Gulf                                    1730                        530

Pasco                                   105                          21

Manatee                                 29                            1

Keys                                     171

St Lucie                                150                            1

Indian River                          321                           

Brevard/Volusia                  1981                        316

Flagler                                      7                         

The entirestate from the panhandle to the Keys. Gulf county had 1730 turtles captured (530 died) and our county area had1981 rescued (316 died).  Statewide therewere 4592 cold stunned turtles. Sadly 20% did not survive, but approximately3700 were saved by volunteers and government employees.

Lots of newinformation on turtles found in the lagoons and bays was collected as eachturtle was tagged: size, location, species, general health, spread of Fibropapilloma.  This will keepresearchers busy for some time.

But the bigstory is how our non-profit, volunteer organization jumped into action whencalled upon.  Providing transport,supplies, people power, overnight turtle lodging and warmth our organizationshined.  I thank all those that steppedforward.  Stop by the office to see our“connection posters”.  Be sure to checkour web site for more data on nesting,strandings, events

Roger