colder or feeling much colder
than we are. But I love the
city. All right. At the top of
the hour, we talked about our
pet shelters and now the how
they handled the freeze.
And now we’re going to check
in on the sea turtles in South
Texas. You might recall
hundreds of cold-stunned sea
turtles washed up ashore during
the 2021 February. Freeze.
At that time, dozens of
volunteers and people from the
community showed up to help.
So joining me now is CEO of Sea
Turtle Inc, windy night.
Good morning. Windy.
>> Good morning. How are you?
>> I’m doing great. Thank you.
How are you guys doing our the
sea turtles.
>> We’re working on staying
warm and they’re doing pretty
good this morning.
>> Awesome. So first, let’s
explain to the viewers what is cold. Stunning.
cold. Stunning.
>> You know, a Cold start
event. That is you know, we
live in South Texas where on
South Padre Island. So normally
unseasonably warm. But when it
gets cold here because sea
turtles are cold-blooded
animals, they use the water
temperature to regulate their
body temperature and when it
gets cold like this, they’re
not able to continue to
regulate their body temperature
properly. So even though
they’re awake and alert, they
know they’re supposed to move
their flippers to swim. They
know they’re supposed to lift
their head temporary, but
because it’s so cold, their
bodies not able to respond to
kind of that natural reaction
and they end up floating up to
the top of the water and if
not rescued, they will drown.
They’re from being unable to
lift their head to Bree.
Yeah. So that so that when it
initially happens, they are
still alive. They’re just so
weak that they can’t swim.
>> Yeah, we often describe it
in as almost like a comatose
state there await their allure.
They know they’re supposed to
be doing something. Their body
just
>> doesn’t react to it. Using
that energy and other ways.
So how are the sea turtles
handling this arctic blast?
How many? How many sea turtles
do you have in your custody?
>> Well, we left here about
11 o’clock at night last night
with a little more than 100
already in the door.
And starting about 07:00AM this
morning, we’ve seen another
few dozen on the way. So we
expect a pretty busy day today.
I’m at the water temperatures
stay below that threshold for
colds done most of the night
last And when you say are
expecting a busy day in and we
see on our screen that the sea
turtles are getting some kind
of a treatment. What type of
care are they actually getting?
>> Yes, so our most important
response and colds done is
really to get them out of the
out of the water, out of the
air and into a more regulated
space.
>> And so at that point, the
good news is nature takes over.
And what they need is to stay
dry and to outside of the cold
winds and to just warm back
up with their natural body
temperature. So what we’re
doing, what we get them in the
door is assessing their medical
status, making sure that any
medical care, urgent care that
they need is taking care of and
then we just let them rest.
Let them know what the
naturally do in the lake
naturally warm up and then come
back to.
>> How they how they they
should be. So in in 2021, we
know that your organization
made a call for help in the
community showed up. Are you
going to need that kind of help
this time? What what’s been the
reaction to this time around?
>> You know, Colston events are
really an environmental
emergency for us. Not one of
the few positive things that
come of it. It’s just an
example of what great community
support that sea Turtle Inc
from those in South Texas and
really all over the world to
your But there are 19 of us
that are paid to be here and
hundreds and thousands that
volunteer their time and Mr.
So we sent calls out both on
our social media, on our
Facebook page and on our
website Knesset, a cold start
the season, supplies like trash
bags and nets and
I’m a medical supplies and
things like that that people
are able to send to us as a
nonprofit, you know, anything
that the public can do to help
us offset the cost of these
kind of catastrophes, make a
pretty significant impact for
us.
>> Yeah, I mean, it is
surprising that you get so many
people to help, but also the
there’s such a huge fascination
with sea turtles. So tell me a
little bit about how sea Turtle
Inc began.
>> You know, sea Turtle Inc has
been responding to calls on
events for 46 years here in
South Texas. We had our 46th
birthday last year. And I
think, you know, these rain
bands are an example of where
we came from. Sea Turtle Inc is
a nonprofit organization that
was literally founded by
volunteers and people that just
saw this bases disappearing and
and saw that without the help
of someone else, they wouldn’t
be able to help themselves. So for the first 20 years of
So for the first 20 years of
our existence, there were no
paid employees and all the
legacy of this organization is
volunteerism and giving back to
an animal that can help itself
otherwise. So we’re real proud
of that legacy and how it still
shows up in our foundation and
events and emergencies like
this.
>> Yeah. And you are open year
round. So how could people
offer help to you? How can they
get involved?
>> Great. Thank you so much for
asking. We are open to the
public. So we are open from
10 to 4 almost every day of the
and all of that price of
admission goes directly to help
us offset issues like this and
all the treatment that’s
required. But the good news is
you don’t have to be in South
Texas on vacation to help.
I so we live stream almost all
of our content on content on
our Facebook page. You can
adopt ceremonially adopt a
turtle. You can get donations
and through a sponsorship of
patience on our website at WWW
DOT C Charlie Dot org. And then
of course, if you’re coming on
vacation or you live in the
area and you want to volunteer,
you can do that on our website
as well.
>> I love it. OK? Windy night.
CEO of sea turtle. In anything
you’d like to add before I let
you go.
>> Thank you so much. You know,
like I said, this is I’m major
environmental event and bring
such great attention to so much
around these endangered sea
turtle. So we greatly
appreciate you and your viewers
helping us this emergency.
Yeah, I know on behalf of the