Small, wrinkled and stranded in chilly waters, young hard-shelled turtles have been turning up on the beaches of the UK and Ireland in higher numbers than usual this winter.
According to reports made to the Marine Conservation Society and Marine Environmental Monitoring, 13 juvenile turtles have been stranded since November – 12 loggerheads and one Kemp’s ridley turtle.
“It’s definitely higher this year than it has been before,” said Amy Pilsbury, a citizen science programme developer at the Marine Conservation Society, adding that typically only five or six turtles are reported over the period.
Pilsbury said that while investigations would be needed to confirm the reason for the increase, it could be down to storm events off the east coast of the US and in the Caribbean. These may have moved the turtles from their usual range in tropical waters into Atlantic currents – a particular concern for those that are young or injured.
“Normally [the turtles that get stranded] are either juveniles, so it just means that they’re not quite strong enough to swim against some of the currents yet, or it might be that they’re an adult that has some kind of damaged flipper or something that affects their ability to swim,” Pilsbury said.
Once these turtles end up off course, there is another danger, she said. “Because it’s so cold, they go into cold water shock. So that means they just basically start to shut down and stop swimming even more. Obviously, eventually that leads them to them being beached.”
Although it might be tempting to simply return the reptiles to the water, experts say this could prove fatal.
“Often if people find them they’ll be really shut down. It might even look like they’re not alive even if they are,” Pilsbury said.
Instead, the team recommend that turtles should be tucked up in a damp towel and popped on their belly in a sheltered location or in a box or a basket, with their bottom slightly raised to help water drain from their lungs, and their nostrils uncovered.
While the majority of the turtles have turned up in Devon and Cornwall, strandings have also been reported in Anglesey and County Mayo.
The Marine Conservation Society also urges anyone who discovers a stranded turtle to call the team. “Normally we will try our best to get out there as soon as possible and collect them,” Pilsbury said.
