We are staying in the pan handle of Florida for our annual “stay put for tax season” event. Now that Misty owns her CPA firm, there’s just too much work for her to keep up with if we are traveling and seeing the sights. So, for now at least, we have been staying put for the winter so she can focus on work.
This year we found a lovely spot in one of our favorite areas of Florida, Port Saint Joe. They call it the “Forgotten Coast” for good reason, it isn’t as “touristy” as most of the Florida coastline. No large condos, hotels and theme parks. Just beautiful beaches with fewer people. Right up our alley.
Anyway, yesterday our park delayed some activities because they wanted to witness a sea turtle release. We hadn’t heard anything about it but Misty absolutely loves sea turtles so I informed her about the release. She at first hesitated but quickly decided she wanted to see it too. So we drove over to “The Cape” as the locals call it (Cape San Blas for the rest of us) for the release. We were so glad we did!
We’ve witnessed releases before while staying in south Texas on South Padre Island. They release a few dozen. This release, however, they were releasing 400! We later learned they had over 1000 to release at some point soon.
So, you might be wondering why they had so many to release. During the winter the water temperature can drop rather quickly, particularly in shallow water. The south had a seriously cold “arctic blast” event last week where temps were dropping into the low twenties at night. Very unusual for this part of the country! Well, these turtles were in the bay waters which are shallow. The temps dropped too quickly for them to get out to the gulf which caused them to get cold stunned.
So what is “cold stunned”? It’s essentially hypothermia. Turtles are cold blooded and thus need the warmth of their environment to keep them warm. Once the water temp goes below 50 degrees, they become hypothermic, get lethargic and can’t swim. They float on top of the water which makes then extremely vulnerable. They also die just as humans can if hypothermic. So when found or reported, these volunteer organizations rescue them until the water temps return to desired levels.
So it’s a great opportunity to see these wonderful creatures up close as they are being released.
