The number of cold stunned turtles brought in from the gulf are expected to increase Wednesday. Staff say they are ready to take in hundreds if not thousands.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Freezing weather on Tuesday caused attractions on North Beach to close.
However, a full ‘ride out’ team was hard at work at the Texas State Aquarium to make sure all of the animals were safe and warm throughout the night as they are prepared for what could be a significant cold-stunned sea-turtle event.
While temperatures have been frosty outside, inside the Texas State Aquarium’s Wildlife Rescue Center, it was a balmy 75 degrees.
“We’re preparing for what could be a significant size sea turtle stunning event,” said CEO of the Texas State Aquarium Jesse Gilbert.
Gilbert said this is the first test of a freeze of this magnitude for the rescue center, in addition to their preps at the aquarium.
The center is one of the largest in the United States, and is able to take on hundreds of sick sea turtles at a time. Gilbert showed 3NEWS one batch currently at the center which was flown in from Boston.
A ride-out team spent Monday night at the center, mainly concerned with power outages affecting the water temperatures inside their turtle hospital.
Luckily there were no issues.
“Water about 72 [degrees], so we want to promote the healing of these turtles,” Gilbert said. “They get CT scans, X-rays. A lot of these animals have pneumonia, so they’ll be treated by the animal health team here at the aquarium.”
Much like the city has an operations center during emergencies, so does the Texas State Aquarium.
“This is the only of its kind anywhere in the country, and it’s a partnership with the aquarium, but also all the agencies that that deal with wildlife,” he said.
It’s where they are able to monitor and coordinate large-scale responses for wildlife disasters.
“For the first time, we actually were able to use the Texas A&M unmanned aircraft — the drones — to get up and do some pre-flights earlier this week, just to see if we could see population numbers before they were to stun,” he said.
Gilbert said the aquarium is now focused on welcoming an influx of even more cold-stunned turtles from the Texas coast. He said they expect those reports to pick up Wednesday.
He showed 3NEWS the ground-level area, where an emergency intake is set up to accommodate hundreds of turtles.
“What’s unique about these systems — we can put these anywhere — from any shape, any size, we can make this the size of a football field,” he said.
Gilbert said they’ve set up for about 750 turtles, but if needed, they can accommodate up to 5,000.
The Autonomous Research Institute at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will provide air assets again Wednesday over the water.
If you spot a cold stunned turtle, you are asked not to put it back in the water. Instead call the Texas Sea Turtle Info Line at 1-866-TURTLE5 (887-8535).