Sea Turtle Inc. rescues 150 cold-stunned turtles

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Local non-profit, Sea Turtle Inc. rescued over 150 cold-stunned sea turtles in its third cold-stun event of the year.

On Saturday the non-profit told ValleyCentral they received the turtles at their facility and that approximately 20 turtles from their hospital were affected by the cold weather.

Wendy Knight, CEO of Sea Turtle Inc. said that having three cold-stun events such as this is unprecedented and there have never been three cold-stunned events in a single year.

"All seven species, all turtles are impacted by the temperature of the water. So it's not specialized or isolated to one individual kind of turtle," said Knight.

A cold stun event can occur when temperatures drop below the 50-degree mark. In this winter season, Sea Turtle Inc. rescued over 600 sea turtles.

The organization reminds the public if they come in contact with a cold-stunned turtle call the Sea Turtle Emergency hotline at (956) 243-4361.