Sea Turtle Inc. on Texas freeze, 5k cold-stunned turtles 3 years later

Winter Storm Uri in 2021 was one of the most impactful winter events in recent history. It devastated not only people on land but also animals in the water.

Sea Turtle Inc. on South Padre Island rescued over 5,000 cold-stunned turtles in that storm. Now, nearly 3 years later, and with another possible freeze on its way, they are detailing what they learned and how they have grown since. 

On February 14, 2021, Sea Turtle Inc. and its 19 employees readily awaited cold-stun patients as turtles are ectothermic animals that are unable to regulate their own body temperatures. They had no idea at what magnitude they would receive them and what started as at least 10 rescues turned into the largest cold-stun event in recorded history with a total of 5,557 turtles rescued.

Sea Turtle Inc.’s CEO, Wendy Knight, told MySA that when they first began to get the overflow of patients they were unsure what to do as they ran out of supplies and space to care for the animals. After consulting the team, the organization’s only hope was to return to its roots of community and call on the public for help.

Within hours of their post, they received help from hundreds and eventually thousands of people from across the state and nation. At that time, many people were struggling, and Knight says people jumped at the chance to do something by donating and volunteering. Some people even traveled from other parts of South and Central Texas like San Antonio and Austin. 

The work did not stop there. Sea Turtle Inc. also, with their direct connections within the city, gained access to the convention center that held many of those stunned turtles amidst the freeze.

“All of the convention floors was filled, it was about three football fields, of sea turtles,” Knight said. 

The concern for turtles didn’t just focus on those in the ocean but even the nonprofit resident turtles whose tanks lost power, as did the rest of Texas. That’s when another community member, SpaceX, stepped up to the plate and loaned the organization their commercial-sized launch pad generator that re-powered the facility for the remaining days of the freeze.

“That event proved we have not lost track of our roots,” Knight said as she explained the “organization was started by volunteers, not by biologists or by doctors but by normal people who saw these animals dwindle away to a non-existent.” 

For eight days, the organization worked endless hours helping turtles from the wildlife and its resident turtles. They even returned as many turtles as possible back to the ocean with the use of a loaned cargo boat that transported around 3,000 turtles to warmer waters over 24 hours. 

“When the dust settled, we went, wow, that could have been really bad,” Knight said. “That storm could have wiped out the entire legacy of this organization. Enough animals could have died in that storm to have wiped out all of the improvement we have made in the last 46 years.”

Knight went on to detail how the whole freeze solidified the non-profit reactive mission, saying, “That event validated a lot of things about the very long history of this organization and its influenced change in us at the same time.”

Before the storm, Sea Turtle Inc. had planned an expansion and already had it on the books. They only planned to add to their small facility with a new hospital extension. However, after the storm, they decided to widen their growth at a grander level including their volunteer efforts and physical expansion. 

“It really invigorated us around a more global approach to volunteerism,” Knight said. “You don’t have to be sitting on South Padre Island to get engaged with us, and that’s come as a result of that storm.”

The organization decided to scrap its plans of adding to its old building and move forward to building the largest fully enclosed sea turtle hospital in the world. 

The facility will house a hospital and research center that is set to open in early 2024. It will connect more than 45,000 square-feet of fully dedicated sea turtle space by a boardwalk system that overlooks the Laguna Madre Bay, making up the Sea Turtle Inc. Complex.

Inside, visitors will soon be able to see a one-of-a-kind 30,000-galloon WOW tank at the entrance. While walking the facility, guests will be able to look as turtles undergo CT machine scans by the world’s only fully sea turtle-dedicated machinery and check out a 1,000-square-foot state-of-the-art surgical suite. 

Growing directly from the storm, the sea turtle medical center will provide double the current patient capacity — which is around 100-150 during non-cold stun periods — and be able to hold the capacity they saw during the winter storm. In addition, the facility will also have a specified area for sea turtle food preparation. 

All of the growth will, in the end, help continue the organization’s proactive educational efforts that they provide in both English and Spanish. It was noted that they are one of the only facilities in the nation that provides bilingual education throughout their grounds. 

“Just because you don’t live by the ocean doesn’t mean you can not meaningfully impact marine life and conservation,” Knight said. “You can go back anywhere in the world and apply individual accountability.”

Conservation is a heavy, intimidating topic that can influence many people to do nothing in the belief that they will not make an impact. However, Knight explained, with individual accountability, one person’s action joining others can have a trickling effect to help the environment. Some examples of individual accountability included eliminating single-use plastic bottles or deciding to pick up one piece of trash a day. 

“It’s very easy to think I do not live on an island so I am not impacted by trash on the beach,” Knight said. “But a quick example is that there is actually a turtle that eats its weight of 200 pounds of jellyfish a day. Imagine if that just stopped. All our cargo ships carrying laptops or whatever we need won’t be able to make it through.” 

Lastly, the organization will use the new facility to help shape future educators and marine life career specialists with their internship program. All though they have had the program in place for years, the facility will help save the non-profit money by also being a live-in facility for interns. The new building will truly immerse students into the community as they live and breathe sea turtle conservation. 

As far as future storms are concerned, the organization says they are “always ready for cold stun events” as they have done so for the last 46 years. But they remain welcoming to any and all volunteers. 

With current weather bringing low temperatures across parts of South Texas, specifically near South Padre Island, the nonprofit has already begun its recruitment for response teams. In anticipation, Sea Turtle Inc. called on captains and boat owners to join their Cold Storm Response Fleet on Wednesday. 

Interested volunteers were asked to register at Info@seaturtleinc.org. To learn more about Sea Turtle Inc., click here.