UMass Study Examines Sea Turtle Problems
2/4/19
The University of Massachusetts is putting out a new study that suggests a link between the rise in sea turtle strandings on Cape Cod and a rise in temperature in the Gulf of Maine.
The study, which was also worked on by Mass Audubon and the University of Rhode Island, says the number of cold-stunned and stranding events among juvenile endangered Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles is increasing at an alarming rate.
Before 2009, observers only saw more than one-hundred stranded turtles twice, but that low number is now rare; in 2014, it was over eleven-hundred in Cape Cod Bay, according to the study.
Researchers say the warmer waters are causing the turtles to migrate too late and get caught in the long-arm geography of Cape Cod.