Due To Blizzard And Extreme Weather, Thousands Of Sea Turtles Faint And Are Evacuated In Texas

JAKARTA - Thousands of sea turtles collapsed due to extreme weather and snowstorms that hit the Southern United States, particularly Texas, had to be evacuated to warmer places to avoid worse things.

On South Padre Island, Texas, more than 4,000 sea turtles collapsed from the cold were evacuated. The turtles were brought from the Gulf of Mexico by Sea Turtle Inc., a turtle conservation and rehabilitation agency.

Meanwhile in the cold waters of the Brownsville Ship Channel and the surrounding bay, the Texas Game Warden serving in the Cameron region rescued 141 turtles from the area and were evacuated by sea on the motor boat PV Murchison.

"Fainting cold like this could have the potential to wipe out decades of hard work, and we got through it effortlessly and the unique challenges that were more formidable to our endeavors," said Sea Turtle Inc. Executive Director. Wendy Knight told The Washington Post.

Launching Euronews, the condition experienced by sea turtles is cold stun, a condition experienced by turtles where temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius cause cold-blooded animals to become lethargic. This means they can't swim or forage for food and so they are stranded on the beach.

Local conservationists have tried to gradually warm the turtles, but a shortage of electricity has hampered their efforts. On Wednesday, SpaceX delivered generators to the facility from a nearby launch site to help warm tanks and ponds at Sea Turtle Inc.

Deadly blizzards have hit the southern US this week. This has led to some of the coldest temperatures ever seen in Texas in more than 30 years as it dipped to -18 degrees Celsius earlier this week.

The storm has killed about 20 people and left millions without electricity, as poorly prepared power grids fail to cope with increasing demand for electricity and ice conditions.