Cold Stunned Manatees and Turtles - Kathryn Gentile Mote Marine Lab

Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota is nursing three manatees and several green sea turtles who fell victim to Florida's recent cold snap -- the worst in some sixteen years. We speak with Mote's Kathryn Gentile about the rehab process and what to do if you find a sea creature affected by cold. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. Our recent cold
snap through a left hook to much of Florida's wildlife,
including sea creatures. Mote Marine Laboratory, based in the Sarasota area,
is now the temporary home for some manatees and green
sea turtles who got affected by the cold. We have
Catherine Genteel with Mote Marine with us to talk about
their newest patients. Catherine Genteel, welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you so much for having me on and for
giving us an opportunity to talk about something so important
to southwest Florida.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Now we see land animals like iguanas and pythons and alligators,
reptiles in particular, affected by the cold. How does chili
weather like we just saw here in Florida, how does
that hid in the water?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well? Marine animals use the surrounding water temperature to regulate
their own bodily temperatures. So when a cold snap comes in,
just like the last one did in the past couple
of weeks, the animals become very cold, and it affects
their metabolic and physiological processes, and so unfortunately they become lethargic,
they become disoriented, they have trouble swimming foraging for food,

(01:04):
and many of them just float at the surface of
the water until they are hit by vessels or preyed
upon by other animals. And they are very susceptible to
infections in that state as well.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
And if you could give us the backstory on these
three manatees, I understand they were not too far north
of you when they were found.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Correct. We found them in Bear Creek in Penelas County.
We rescued the first one on January twenty seventh, and
the following two on January twenty ninth. All of them
are juveniles, less than sixteen months old and only a
couple hundred pounds. They were all cold stressed, which meant
that they were incredibly lethargic and yeah, just floating at
the surface. Normally, these manatees would go to a primary

(01:45):
care facility because Mote used to be designated as a
secondary care facility, which means that we receive animals after
they've already been stabilized by another facility. But because of
the cold front that came through, all of the primary
care facilities were completely full and at over capacity, so
our designation was changed to accept light critical care patients.

(02:06):
So we actually brought the manatees directly to our facility
here in Sarasota, where we are slowly warming them up
and feeding them and making sure that they're breathing at
regular times and a couple things.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Of course, once you mentioned also that being juveniles, being
younger manatees, they would face more potentially of an impact,
and also if you could talk a little bit about
the process of warming them up, that they can't just
be brought up to temperature all at once. It's a
gradual process.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Right, And I really appreciate you actually asking that question
because a lot of people think if they see a
cold stressed or cold stunned animal in the water, that
they can just get a hot bucket of water and
dip them in it, and that would actually be very
harmful to them because it would be too drastic of
a change in temperature. So what we do is we
very very slowly introduce them to warmer waters, go about

(03:00):
one to two degrees per day, but it's a very
very slow process, and at first we just want to
make sure that they're able to take that temperature increase
and that they're still behaving normally. So we're monitoring them
twenty four to seven around the clock. Our expert animal
care teams are constantly checking their signs for normal behaviors.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Now you are also rehabbing some green sea turtles from
the East coast. Tell us tell us the backstory on
those turtles.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
So in one day, we received twenty five green sea
turtles from the East Coast, and the process of that
is very difficult. We had to perform intakes on all
twenty five seat turtles, which consisted of taking body measurements,
checking their bodies for tumors, and also just deciding what

(03:50):
needed to be done. So some of them just needed
a little bit of warmer waters and then they're able
to be released or sent to another institution. However, others
needed procedures to be done to remove those tumors and
they needed to be quarantined. So it's just a process
of evaluating each individual animal and seeing what we need
to do first. Some of them were actually also missing

(04:11):
limbs as well because of boat strikes or because of
other animals preying upon them. Since they are in such
a vulnerable state when they are lethargic and just floating
on top of the water, they have no defensive mechanisms
to actually protect themselves. So that's why they all come
in varying conditions when we get them.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
You mentioned that warming them up is a slow process.
What's the recovery timeline that you're able to plot out
for the manates and the sea turtles.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
The manatees take much longer than the sea turtles. The
manatees are difficult because we don't want to put them
back into cold water, so they're here with us for
a couple of months until the warm the water is
warm significantly, just because cold season is not over. Even
though it's beginning to feel warmer again in Florida, we

(04:59):
still anticipate getting many more cold stunned and cold stressed
animals over the coming months, so we have to wait
until summer or later when that water, you know, warms
back up to release them. The seat turtles, however, are
a different story. They're a bit more resilient. We're able
to release them quicker, and so some of them have

(05:20):
actually already been sent to other institutions or released. So
twelve of them are out of our care and we
just have the most critical patients left, and that is
a case by case basis, So some will be with
us for weeks, others maybe days, but definitely a shorter
period of time than the manatees.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Well, I hope that we don't have an event again
as severe as this one, at least not this year.
But the next time there's a cold snap. How can
you spot a cold affected turtle or manatee? And we
know not to dump a bucket of hot water on them,
but what else can you do to help?

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yes, so usually a cold stressed manatee or cold stunt
turtle will be floating at the surface and you'll barely
see them moving. Many people at first think they're deceased
because their breathing is so slow that you can't even
really see them doing it. But in that case, the
best thing you can do is either call FWC or

(06:16):
call MOAT with our Strandings Investigation hotline that is monitored
twenty four to seven, and either FWC or we or
both of us will go out and check the animal,
and if it's unfortunately passed away, we will take it
with us, recover it performing a crop sea which is
an animal autopsy, or if it's still alive, we'll coordinate
with FWC and USFWS and other organizations throughout Florida about

(06:39):
who can take this animal and rescue it to the
best of their ability, and so yeah, that's the best
thing you can do. I mean, we've had people in
the past think to themselves, oh, I have a tub
at home, and I can just put hot water in
it and take the turtle and put it in the tub.
But it would just really shock their system and unfortunately
harm them more. So the best thing you can do
is call the proper authorities.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
All good to know, and we hope that the manatees
and turtles make a thorough recovery. Catherine Genteel with Mote
Marine Lab in Sarasota talking to us about some of
the cold stunned creatures that are now in rehab there.
Thank you very much for joining us on Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Thank you so much.