Cold-stunned sea turtles recuperate in Quincy. Find out about who gets them there

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29-03-2025

EAST DENNIS — Bruce Beane, of Chatham, knows cold well. From November to January, he patrols beaches such as Cold Storage Beach after high tide — at night, flashlight in hand — searching for cold-stunned sea turtles. His wife, Debby Walther, transports the turtles to the New England Aquarium Sea Turtle Hospital in Quincy for rehabilitation.
The couple takes quiet pride in their work, knowing each rescue gives the turtles a second chance at life. But what moves them most is hearing the turtles they've worked to save are thriving — years after their release.
Newly shared findings from surgically implanted acoustic tags show loggerheads rescued from Cape Cod beaches and released in 2021 and 2022 are not only surviving. They are returning to local waters during the warmer months, according to researchers at the New England Aquarium
'These acoustic transmitters are telling us that rehabilitated sea turtles can survive beyond that first year, and they are showing up in well-established feeding areas," said Kara Dodge, a research scientist at the aquarium's Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. "That gives us confidence in their ability to reintegrate into the wild population."
The loggerheads they're tracking were named after spices: Tajin, Red Pepper Flake, Mace, Horseradish, and Caraway — names that appropriately suggest fiery resilience.
For Beane and Walther, who are among dozens of volunteers in the cold-stun rescue program that Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary coordinates in partnership with the aquarium, the scientists' findings feel like an affirmation of their efforts. The turtles, generally, are categorized as endangered or otherwise at risk.
Beane, credited with rescuing Caraway, said hearing about the loggerheads' survival and successful migrations since release "makes me feel like I'm accomplishing a little something."
He's volunteered with the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay program ever since he answered a call to help transport rescued turtles in the fall of 2014, when more than 1,200 washed ashore.
"I'd always driven a van, so I said, 'if they've got a lot of turtles, I could be of use,'" he recalled.
For one of his first trips, he had 50 Kemp's ridley turtles packed into his van, nestled in banana boxes. After that, he was hooked, and the next year Beane began volunteering to patrol the beaches, in addition to driving — he often takes on the three miles of beach on the bay side of Great Island in Wellfleet.
Walther, who joined the turtle rescue program a few years before her husband, is thrilled to learn the rehabbed loggerheads are thriving. She feels a deep connection with each turtle she helps. "Every time I see one, I'm overwhelmed by them. I just feel that I'm helping. There are so few of them that every one that I help makes a difference."
Besides the loggerheads and Kemp's ridley's, green sea turtles are also rescued from local beaches.
The couple's work, and that of their fellow volunteers, is essential to a larger effort to track and protect sea turtles in the region, according to researchers. The loggerheads' acoustic tags allow aquarium researchers to gather long-term data about where they go and how they interact with the environment — all critical for shaping conservation strategies.
In 2021, the scientists were granted a federal permit to implant acoustic transmitters in the rescued loggerheads. Unlike satellite tags, which can fall off quickly and have a limited life of 6 to 12 months, the internal transmitters work for 3 to 7 years, allowing for more detailed tracking.
The researchers have been surprised by the turtles' annual return to local feeding habitats, which suggests "this area may be more important for loggerheads than we previously thought," Dodge said.
The acoustic transmitters broadcast 'pings," which are picked up by listening stations when a turtle passes by — much like an E-ZPass system.
'It's a little like Christmas morning every time we receive a new set of data,' said Charles Innis, a senior scientist and veterinarian at the aquarium who pioneered the internal acoustic tagging procedure for sea turtles.
Acoustic receivers from Massachusetts to Florida have detected the tagged loggerheads nearly 6,000 times.
"The acoustic tagging and tracking work led by Dr. Dodge and Dr. Innis is groundbreaking and vitally important for sea turtle conservation research off our coast, for numerous reasons," said Karen Moore Dourdeville, the Cape Cod sea turtle research coordinator for Mass Audubon in Wellfleet.
Climate change, which has resulted in rising ocean temperatures and northward expansion of sea turtle migration for feeding, is contributing to increased cold-stunned strandings. With warm temperatures lingering later into the year, some turtles head south too late, while others get trapped in Cape Cod Bay, where the water stays warmer longer. When the temperature drops below 55°F, the turtles become cold-stunned — a hypothermic condition that renders them lethargic and unable to eat or swim.
Dodge and Innis are now interested in whether Kemp's ridley and green sea turtles are also returning to New England, or if this behavior is unique to loggerheads.
'If we continue to gather data for larger numbers of turtles in New England waters, we will likely have a better understanding of when they are typically present and where they spend their time, both of which may inform future protective measures,' Innis said.
The scientists are hoping for permission to implant acoustic tags in the other turtle species. In the meantime, they continue to monitor data from the loggerheads, which is expected to come in through 2032.
Heather McCarron writes about climate change, environment, energy, science and the natural world, in addition to news and features in Barnstable and Brewster. Reach her at [e-mail]
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Rehabilitated loggerhead turtles return to scene of rescue years later