Now Is Season of Stranded Sea Turtles on Oregon Coast: First Rescue Dies Within Days

Published 11/21/24 at 6:45 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Seaside, Oregon) – It is indeed that season again. Once more, it is the time of year when cold-stunned sea turtles will end up on Pacific Northwest beaches. Experts say now you should keep an eye out for them and report them immediately as they won't have long to live. (Photo Seaside Aquarium)

The first one was encountered Monday by Seaside Aquarium, when a 60-pound, female Olive Ridley sea turtle was found in Gearhart.

The aquarium's Tiffany Boothe said the turtle was quite active for a cold-stunned sea turtle, and was even moving around to some degree.

“Once the turtle was secured, staff from the Seaside Aquarium transferred the turtle to the Oregon Coast Aquarium,” Boothe said. “While she was still alive and active, her body temperature was dangerously low and unfortunately she passed away on Wednesday.”

Reports of this sort of thing start coming in as early as October, Boothe said, and then it continues into March.

Basically, sea turtles forage offshore for food. They live farther south in the warmer waters of California, but when following warm currents they can end up going too far north and those warm currents run out. Certain weather conditions such as a constant string of south to southwesterly winds can drive the currents farther north than usual – and closer to shore.

Those currents and waters eventually change to the colder depths of Oregon and Washington.

“The turtles find themselves trapped in the colder waters of the natural currents running along the Oregon and Washington coasts,” Boothe said. “When this happens, their bodies slow down and they become hypothermic.”

This time of year makes this happen much more.

“As with any sea turtle found along the Oregon coast, the likelihood of them surviving is very low,” Boothe said. “We do everything we can to get to the turtles as soon as possible and get them to a licensed rehab facility such as the Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Seattle Aquarium. And while we were able to get to this girl quickly and transfer her immediately she had suffered too much damage.”

Boothe said that when they are found on beaches, it's often difficult to tell if the creature is alive or not.

An Olive Ridley rescued by the aquarium in 2020

“A turtle suffering from extreme hypothermia can be unresponsive to touch and have a heartbeat so slow and weak that it is difficult to detect,” she told Oregon Coast Beach Connection. “Most sea turtles found on Oregon and Washington shores do not survive, even if found and recovered quickly.”

The goal is always to get them to a licensed rehab facility as quickly as possible. Once they are stabilized – which can take weeks – they are transferred to a center in California to be released back into the wild. The vast majority do not survive that long, however.

Oregon's coastline sees as many as five different species of sea turtle, but the most common is the Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea). They are the most abundant around the world, with an estimated population of around 800,000 nesting females.

Even so, the numbers are not as robust as they seem. Boothe said they are still endangered, facing a large set of dangers from civilization.

From 2019 - Seaside Aquarium photo

“The expansion of the shrimp trawling fishery in the eastern Indian Ocean has had a major impact on the Oliver Ridley population, contributing to up to 10,000 deaths each year,” Boothe said. “Thankfully, in 2004 the Odisha government introduced an annual fishing ban from November to May (the time of year when the turtles are nesting) that has reduced their incidental mortality by half, and surveys found that nesting surged to record numbers in 2011.”

Other major threats to the turtles' existence on Earth is their own biology. They are one of only two species that engage in mass-nesting, meaning that thousands of females will lay their eggs all at once on the breeding ground beaches. Competition for space on the beach is so high that females dig up the eggs of others, unintentionally destroying them. This lessens the population numbers.

These nesting areas are usually in South America.

Seaside Aquarium responds to these incidents and other strandings such as whales or seals, covering Rockaway Beach into the southern Washington coast. Newport's Oregon Coast Aquarium responds to sea turtles on the central coast around Lincoln County.

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