People Are Packing Up Their Cars With Sea Turtles In Preparation For The Upcoming Winter Storm
Humans aren’t the only ones feeling the chill as Texas continues to suffer from the effects of this year’s winter vortex.
Countless sea turtles have been shocked by the existence temperature along the beach, but they haven’t gone unnoticed.
Help is on the way for them.
Volunteers from Sea Turtle, Inc. on South Padre Island have already been actively working over the last several days to rescue as many turtles as possible.
Because turtles are cold-blooded and unable to adjust their internal temperature, the cold has made them almost immobile. They are at significant risk of drowning since they are unable to swim or move correctly.
Faced with the possibility of a catastrophe, volunteers have been searching the coastline for turtles and loading them into their cars to transport them to safety.
My mom is retired, & she spends her winters volunteering at a sea turtle rescue center in south Texas. The cold snap is stunning the local turtles & they’re doing a lot of rescues. She sent me this photo today of the back of her Subaru. It’s *literally* turtles all the way down. pic.twitter.com/xaDRNjLDoQ
— Lara (@lara_hand) February 15, 2021
The South Padre Island Convention Centre and Visitors Bureau became a temporary home for hundreds of these rescued turtles, with over 3,500 having been accommodated thus far.
And the figure continues to rise by the hour.
Here’s a video from the rescue facility that shows turtles stretching their legs as far as the eye can see, gaining some much-needed warmth and strength:
The view at the conference center is strange, yet every shell in sight represents a life that has been saved.
The struggle to preserve these turtles is still underway, but with any luck, they will all be returned home after the storm has passed. From there, their lives — and the lives of future generations — will be a monument to the numerous volunteers who assisted them.