QUINCY, Mass. (AP) — As global warming fills plankton-rich reserves New England waters With death traps for sea turtles, the number of stranded reptiles has multiplied over the past 20 years, filling a specialist veterinary hospital with endangered creatures.

The animals enter areas such as Cape Cod Bay when it’s hot, and when temperatures inevitably drop, they can’t escape the Hooked Peninsula to head south, said Adam Kennedy, director of Rescue and Rehabilitation at the New England Aquarium, which operates a turtle hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts.

More than 200 cold-stunned young turtles were treated there Tuesday, Kennedy said.

“Climate change is certainly allowing turtle numbers to reach numbers that normally weren’t very high a few years ago,” he said.

Sea turtles stunned by coldsometimes close to death, wash up on Cape Cod every fall and winter. The aquarium expects the number of turtles it rescues to reach at least 400, Kennedy said. In 2010, the average was 40, he said.

High winds and falling temperatures fueled the recent strandings, he said.

The five-year total average of cold-stunned sea turtles in Massachusetts was about 200 in the early 2010s, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and that number has risen to more than 700 in recent years. years.

All of the New England Aquarium’s hospital turtles are juveniles, mostly critically endangered Kemp’s tortoises, whose migratory patterns lead to strandings here. They were treated for illnesses ranging from pneumonia to sepsis.

The Kemp’s turtle, the world’s smallest sea turtle, lives largely in the Gulf of Mexico and ventures into the Atlantic Ocean as a juvenile. Some recent science, including a 2019 study published in the journal PLoS One, indicates that ocean warming increases the risk of cold events once turtles reach the Northwest Atlantic. Warmer seas could push turtles north, making stranding more likely, the study said.

Upon arrival, turtles are often seriously ill.

“The majority of turtles arrive with serious illnesses such as pneumonia, dehydration, traumatic injuries or sepsis,” said Melissa Joblon, director of animal health at the aquarium.

The turtle hospital rehabilitates the animals so they can be safely released back into the wild, sometimes locally and sometimes in warmer southern waters, Kennedy said. About 80% survive.

Some of the turtles arriving at the hospital are green turtles or loggerhead turtles, which are not as endangered as the Kemp’s ridley turtle, but still face many threats.

“Ultimately, returning these turtles to the wild is what we do and what we want,” Kennedy said. “We want them back in the ocean.” ___

Whittle was reported in Portland, Maine.