Nov 28, 2009 5:05 pm US/Eastern
Endangered Sea Turtles Stranded On Cape
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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One of the endangered sea turtles being treated at the New England Aquarium Saturday.
WBZ
Ten endangered sea turtles have been brought from the Cape to Boston for life-saving treatment since Thanksgiving and more are expected.
The New England Aquarium announced Saturday that it was treating the turtles, which are stranding themselves later than usual this year.
Watch: Raw Video of Turtles
Because the weather has been milder than normal in southern New England this fall, the aquarium had treated just three stranded turtles before Thursday.
Dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of the turtles usually strand themselves in November.
Now that temperatures have dropped, the strandings are starting to pick up – three weeks late.
"The gusting 20-30 mile per winds have created significant wave activity across Cape Cod Bay which drives the nearly motionless cold-stunned sea turtles up on to beaches from Dennis to Truro," said aquarium spokesman Tony LaCasse.
"Besides hypothermia, the turtles can also suffer from pneumonia, shell fractures and bacterial and fungal infections."
Treatment for the sea turtles can take a few months, and in some cases, more than a year.
Once they're healthy, they're released back in to the wild.
The New England Aquarium says its successfully treated and released more than 500 of the sea turtles in the last 15 years.
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