Rare but possible: Sea turtle network asks residents to keep their eye on the shoreline

The water temperatures are getting colder, and for sea turtles, this could be bad news.

If a sea turtle ends up in water that’s 10 C or below, it could become cold-stunned, which is similar to hypothermia but for turtles, according to April Nason, the education and outreach co-ordinator for the Canadian Sea Turtle Network in Nova Scotia.

A cold-stunned sea turtle is unable to swim or eat and will just end up floating at the top of the water.

Nason said the current can pull cold-stunned turtles into the Bay of Fundy and high winds can then blow them onto shore.

“Once they’re onshore, they’re then of course exposed to the elements — the wind, the snow, and/or the rain — and so … their temperature will then start to decrease further, and then become lethal,” said Nason, who is originally from Saint John.

She said it is rare though to find one washed up on shore. 

In December 2020, she said there was one found in Saint John and there’s usually only around one or two found in the Maritimes every year.

But Nason said when they have been found, they aren’t in the best condition because they were left lying on the shore for too long. 

So she’s hoping to get more volunteers involved in surveying beaches to watch for washed-up turtles in an attempt to find them sooner and save them.

Samantha Hudson, a volunteer with the sea turtle network since 2016, said she’s always been drawn to turtles and passionate about species-at-risk.

Hudson, who lives in Miramichi, will survey a stretch of beach from around October to January every year with a watchful eye for sea turtles.

She tries to go every week, but sometimes her visits are less frequent.

The volunteer work consists of walking along a specific stretch of beach every once in a while, and filling out a few questions on a data sheet, she said.

Hudson said she thinks this kind of volunteer work is important.

“Citizen science, I think, is a great tool. Because, you know, small organizations such as the Canadian Sea Turtle Network, and many others, you know, they can only cover so much ground,” she said.

During her time volunteering, Hudson has yet to spot a sea turtle washed up on shore.

When she first started in 2016, Hudson said she really wanted to see a turtle. But her perspective has since changed.

“I felt myself feeling down, like when I would go out and do my walks at certain times, but then I quickly had to remind myself that, you know, no data — like not seeing a sea turtle — is good,” she said. 

“You just really want to see one at first and I’m sure other people have felt that way too. But ideally, we don’t want to see them washed up, we want to see them at sea.”

Hudson said this work can also serve as a good reminder to slow down, open your eyes and take a look around.

Nason said if someone does spot a washed-up turtle, it will likely be around the high water line where there is seaweed. She said they can be small, so it’s always good for people to keep a close eye when out on the beaches. 

What to do if you find a washed-up sea turtle

Nason said she recommends reporting the found turtle to the network and moving it above the high water line so it doesn’t get washed out again.

Nason said it’s also important to resist the urge to warm up the turtle, even if it feels like that would help. She said it’s a very slow, regimented process to warm up a cold-stunned turtle and it often takes two to four days. Warming up a turtle too quickly could kill it.

She said she wants to spread the word about watching for sea turtles in case their numbers start to increase over the next few years.

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She said 20 years ago in Massachusetts, fewer than 100 washed-up sea turtles would be found every year. But just this past year, she said there were 888.

“If everything is moving a little bit more south as the waters tend to rise, there is a chance that we will then become having more and more and potentially tens to hundreds of sea turtles,” said Nason. 

“We’re hoping that doesn’t happen. But we would like to be prepared in case it is our future.”

With files from Information Morning Saint John

This story was originally published in CBC News on Nov. 4, 2023.