Volunteers Rescue Thousands Of Sea Turtles From Fatal Texas Cold

Some of the thousands of sea turtles rescued from the 
record cold weather in coastal Texas rest in a warm
hastily arranged emergency shelter for them. Photo by
Sanjuana C. Zavala/Sea Turtle Inc. 

 You have to find the bright spots where you can find them.   

Especially in the tragedy that icy, dark disaster that befell Texas and surrounding areas this week. 

Sea turtles can't handle the subfreezing cold that hit coastal Texas this week. The cold stuns the turtles into motionless, and from there, they drown, starve or get attacked by predators. 

Since this cold snap is so long lasting, the sea turtles' only real hope is from humans.  

Though there has been a shameful failure of leadership among some humans in this disaster, people also redeemed themselves here. Despite having enough on their plate with power outages, ice, burst pipes, limited water and food shortages, a bunch of people have come together to save the turtles.

As NPR reports:

"Volunteers in coastal Texas have rescued thousands of sea turtles from frigid waters and shores during the historic winter storm and are working creatively to house the as much of the region remains without power.

Sea Turtle, Inc., a nonprofit, education, rehabilitation and conservation organization in South Padre Island, Texas, has taken in nearly 4,500 sea turtles since Sunday, according to Executive Director Wendy Knight. She told NPR that local volunteers have been retrieving the turtles by boat and on foot and that the organization has been able to accommodate them with assistance from the community, including from the local government and SpaceX, which has a launch site nearby."

The South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau opened up the South Padre Island Convention Centre as an emergency shelter for the turtles. Which helped a lot, considering Sea Turtle Inc. only has space for about 500 rescued turtles. 

The space now kind of looks like one of emergency shelters for people, where storm refugees take shelter amid rows of cots in large rooms, like gymnasiums. 

Only this emergency evacuation center is for turtles, of course. The sea turtles are resting in tarps, kiddie pools and boxes all packed into the convention center until it warms up outside. 

Turtles can live a long time. One rescued sea turtle is about 100 years old an weighs roughly 350 pounds. 

Many people who live near the Texas Coast have participated in the rescue, said Sea Turtle Inc. Executive Director Wendy Knight. 

As NPR reports:

"Knight estimates that some 2,200 turtles were brought in during the first two days of the storm, mostly by alert community members who went out in boats - from recreational boats to fishing vessels to dinner cruise boats - to help pull the island's famous creatures from the water. The tide has increasingly pushed the turtles ashore, and volunteers are continuing to pick them up and drive them to the facility in trucks and trailers, she said."

SpaceX chipped in by providing space for some of the turtles, and more importantly, also providing specialized, massive commercial generator to make sure the electricity kept flowing at the turtle rehab center.

MUCH SADDER TEXAS ANIMAL NEWS

Another animal rehabilitation center has much sadder news to report. 

According to NBC News:

"At least a dozen animals, including monkeys, lemurs and one chimpanzee, died after record-setting cold and snow left a Texas animal sanctuary without power, officials said. "

The sanctuary staff was able to grab more than 30 chimpanzees, baboons, monkeys and lemurs and place them in heated bedrooms for the duration of the power outage. 

Area residents responded to calls for flashlights, propane tanks, generators, heaters and animal carriers, which helped. Some of the animals were evacuated to the San Antonio Zoo or other warm places.

Some of the animal deaths were caused by how the cold wave confused them.  Some of the animals in the park refused to go into warm spaces. 

Now that it's starting to warm up in Texas, this crisis will ease, but tragically too late to save some of these animals.