Cold snap stuns turtles

From an article by Sarah Hoye on Tampa Online:

Frigid waters stranded 93 sea turtles along the beaches of Florida's east coast on Wednesday.

The Florida Aquarium Animal Rescue Team will rescue 6 to 8 of sea turtles. They will board and rehabilitate the creatures until the waters warm up.

"There's not anything wrong with them," Wagner said. "We just need to warm them up."

The sea turtles are "cold stunned" said Jeni Hatter, spokeswoman for the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, who are also helping with the rescue efforts.

Because the sea turtles are cold-blooded reptiles (they do not maintain a regular body temperature) they take on the temperature around them and go into a somewhat state of shock.

"They stop swimming, they stop eating, and just start to float," Hatter said, and added that they are taking in 8 turtles today. "Every facility that can take in turtles are doing it."