This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

An unusual number of sea turtles have washed ashore in New England in the recent cold snap, many dead and appearing to have been “flash-frozen”.

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Many of the turtles are from a critically endangered species called Kemp’s ridley, Robert Prescott, director of Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, told the Cape Cod Times.

The number of stranded turtles has already surpassed what is considered normal for the season. Prescott told the Times that at least 219 turtles washed ashore from Wednesday to Friday on Cape Cod beaches. He told CNN 173 of those turtles had died.

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All but one of the 82 turtles found on Thursday, the Thanksgiving holiday, were frozen solid and dead, Prescott said, due to unseasonably cold temperatures.

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“It was like they were flash-frozen, flippers in all weird positions like they were swimming,” he said.

On Friday, temperatures were a few degrees higher and that along with a slight shift in wind direction, meant more turtles found alive, Prescott told the paper.

Turtles usually continue to be found ashore through Christmas. Prescott said it was possible the region could see nearly 1,000 stranded turtles before the new year.

Prescott believes a warming trend in the Gulf of Maine has allowed the turtles to delay migration south.