The New York Marine Rescue Center’s rehabilitation facility already holds over 50 cold-stunned sea turtles in its tanks – a number that includes two records for the number of rescues in a single day.

According to NYMRC Executive Director Maxine Montello, “Things are crazy here.” She said they started with a single sea turtle on November 25th, with 49 additional strandings between November 30th and December 5th. “We’ve had days where 12 to 15 turtles were stranded in one day, which has never happened before,” she said.

Then, on Saturday, Dec. 7, that record was broken and a new one was set when 18 sea turtles were rescued, according to a social media post from the NYMRC.

Ms. Montello attributed the increase in cold-stunned sea turtle strandings to the rapid drop in air and water temperatures. According to seatemperature.info, the average temperature in Long Island Sound dropped to 54 degrees on November 24th.

Ms. Montello suggested that another factor in the increase in rescues is that “we have doubled the size of our patrol team and our trained citizen scientists are searching for these turtles every day.”

Part of the NYMRC’s work is to hold lectures and training sessions on sea turtle cold stunning, where volunteers learn what to look for, how to patrol beaches, and what to do if sea turtle cold stunning is found. Many of the lectures that form the first part of the training took place in local libraries this year. The 2025 schedule has not yet been released, but keep an eye on the NYMRC website for next year’s dates and locations.

However, you don’t have to be a trained volunteer to help sea turtles. The NYMRC Stranding Hotline – 631-369-9829 – is available to anyone who accidentally encounters a turtle, even if the turtle appears to be deceased.

As the Suffolk Times previously reported, Ms Montello explained that, as cold-blooded reptiles, sea turtles cannot regulate their own body temperature. When the air temperature drops in autumn, the water temperature also drops. Once the water reaches 55 degrees, sea turtles that have not left for warmer areas become susceptible to cold stunning.

The cold water slows the sea turtles’ movements and weakens them. Cold-stunned sea turtles cannot swim and are washed ashore by wind and tides.

Here on the North Fork, a report was posted on social media about a cold-stunned sea turtle – an endangered Kemp’s ridley turtle – that Kendal Bayer found on a remote section of Cutchogue Beach on Wednesday, December 4th.

Jennifer Murray of the Turtleback Conservation Center in Peconic, who released the report, said a Long Island Sound hotspot for cold-hardened sea turtles runs between Iron Pier Beach and Duck Pond Road in Riverhead.

“The remote sections are the most critical,” Ms. Murray said via text message. “Like the section between Hallock State Park Preserve and Breakwater (Mattituck Beach). If possible, it is best to go shortly after high tide,” she added.

Your post, like the one on the NYMRC feed, encourages beach walkers and trained patrollers alike to use the cold stun hotline as soon as possible to increase the chances of survival of any sea turtles found.

Moving, attempting to warm, or transporting the sea turtle without instructions from trained NYMRC biologists is strongly discouraged.

Other ways to help include donating money at nymarinerscue.org, purchasing supplies from the Amazon wish list, and of course spreading the word about the cold anesthesia hotline to anyone spending time at the beach during the off-season.