The Mast-Head: A Very Cold Turtle

A short way to the west of where I began walking, I came on a small sea turtle on its back at the high tide line

Nov. 19, 2014

David E. Rattray

Just after sunrise on Sunday, with a first cup of coffee down the hatch and another getting ready on the stove, I went down to the beach for a walk with the dogs. It was a cold morning; a strong northwest wind had blown itself out overnight, but the chill lingered. The sand underfoot was hard, as if getting ready for the freeze to come.

Gardiner’s Bay at this time of the year is devoid of most of spring and summer’s life. The clear, cold water provides little in the way of baitfish for gulls, and the terns have long since left on their southward migration. Long-tail ducks and scoters are there, though, diving to take shellfish from the rocks. Shorebirds in their gray winter plumage pick at the water’s edge.

A short way to the west of where I began walking, I came on a small sea turtle on its back at the high tide line. At this time of year, as the water rapidly cools, turtles like that one sometimes fall into a sort of torpor before they can move to warmer waters. Groups like the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation call the phenomena cold-stunning, and they run workshops and volunteer networks to scour the beaches in the hope of rescuing them.

Those walking the beaches have been asked to phone the group’s hotline if they encounter turtles or other stranded marine life. A technician is rapidly sent to retrieve the animal, which sometimes can be brought back to normal in a controlled setting. Under no circumstances should they be put back into the water or heated even slightly by well-meaning finders.

My turtle, the first known stranding in New York State this season, did not make it. Kim Durham of the Riverhead Foundation said that it could not be revived, likely because it had spent at least three hours on the sand before the dogs and I arrived. I found out later it was an Atlantic green turtle, listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

I was late getting out of the house with the kids on the following mornings, so I did not have a chance to return to the beach to look for more turtles, which has nagged at me. I hope to get out there as soon as I can now that the weather has turned even colder.

The Riverhead Foundation stranding line can be phoned at 369-9829.