COURTESY OF THE WELLFLEET BAY WILDLIFE SANCTUARY: Olivia Bourque and Maureen Duffy process a ridley from Brewster on Sunday.
WELLFLEET – The sea turtle stranding season is in full swing as more than 40 hypothermic turtles were found on Cape Cod beaches over the weekend.
Since late October, Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary has rescued more than 250 sea turtles.
The majority of the cold-stunned turtles have been Kemp’s ridleys, the most endangered sea turtle species in the world.
About 25 green turtles, which are more tropical, have washed up on beaches this season, along with three loggerheads.
The marine creatures have been retrieved mostly between Dennis and Wellfleet because of a series of cold fronts that produced strong northwest winds.
According to researchers, the turtles become cold-stunned or hypothermic when they can’t find their way around the tip of Cape Cod to head south. The turtles feed in Cape Cod Bay in the summer months.
When water temperatures drop below 50 degrees, the turtles become inactive and wash up on area beaches.
The turtles are taken to the New England Aquarium’s Animal Care Center in Quincy where they are stabilized, rehabilitated or transferred to other care facilities.
More than 600 turtles were rescued last year, which was the second busiest stranding season on record.
The record season was in 2014 when more than 1,200 sea turtles washed up on Cape Cod beaches.
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