Story highlights Temperatures in the water dropped too quickly for the young turtles to swim to warmer spots

About 450 went to aquariums, others to a private turtle rehab center

Some are ready to be released back into the sea near the Florida-Georgia border

(CNN) The quick drop in temperatures off the North Carolina coast this week caught several hundred sea turtles in water suddenly too cold for them to swim.

About 600 juvenile turtles needed help, Claire Aubel, a spokeswoman with the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, said.

An aquarist at the facility, Michele Lamping, told CNN affiliate WCTI of New Bern that the turtles were cold stunned, a condition similar to hypothermia. This can happen when temperatures sink quickly in shallow water, the station reported.

"These guys should be in the 70 degree temperatures, and they were down in the 50s," she said.

When a turtle is cold stunned, it stops swimming and just floats with the current. Some end up on shore. Some die, and some become prey.

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