Posted on December 5, 2024

More than 200 cold-stunned young turtles, unable to navigate the chilly winter waters, were being treated Tuesday partly because the warming of the Gulf of Maine.

Credit: AP

Intern Leighton Graham, left, and biologist Sammi Chaves, right, examine a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Author: RODRIQUE NGOWI and PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press

Published: 12:58 PM CST December 3, 2024

Updated: 1:01 PM CST December 3, 2024

QUINCY, Mass. — Global warming is filling the plankton-rich waters of New England with death traps for sea turtles and the number of stranded reptiles has multiplied over the last 20 years, turning some animal hospitals into specialized wards for endangered species with maladies ranging from pneumonia to sepsis.

More than 200 cold-stunned young turtles, unable to navigate the chilly winter waters, were being treated Tuesday partly because the warming of the Gulf of Maine has turned it into a natural snare for sea turtles, said Adam Kennedy, the director of rescue and rehabilitation at the New England Aquarium, which runs the Quincy, Massachusetts turtle hospital.

The animals enter areas of the gulf such as Cape Cod Bay when it is warm, and when temperatures inevitably drop, they can’t escape the hooked peninsula to head south, Kennedy said.

“Climate change certainly is allowing those numbers of turtles to get in where normally the numbers weren’t very high years ago,” Kennedy said.

Cold-stunned sea turtles, sometimes near death, wash up on Cape Cod every fall and winter. The aquarium expects the number of turtles it rescues to climb to at least 400, Kennedy said, up from about 40 a year a decade ago, Kennedy said.

The total five-year average of cold-stunned sea turtles in Massachusetts was around 200 in the early 2010s, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, growing to more than 700 in recent years.

All the turtles at New England Aquarium’s hospital are juveniles, mostly critically endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles whose migratory patterns fuel their strandings here.

The Kemp’s — the world’s smallest sea turtle — lives largely in the Gulf of Mexico and ventures into the Atlantic Ocean when juvenile. Some recent science, including a 2019 study in the journal PLoS One, says the warming of the ocean increases the chance of cold-stunning events once the turtles reach the Northwest Atlantic. Warmer seas may have pushed the turtles north in a way that makes stranding more likely, the study said.

The turtle hospital allows the animals to rehabilitate so they can be safely returned to the wild, sometimes locally and sometimes in warmer southern waters, Kennedy said.

Upon arrival, the turtles are often critically ill.

“The majority of the turtles arrive with serious ailments such as pneumonia, dehydration, traumatic injuries, or sepsis,” said Melissa Joblon, director of animal health at the aquarium.

Around 80% survive. High wind speeds and dropping temperatures have played a role in recent strandings, he said.

Some of the turtles that arrive at the hospital are green turtles or loggerheads, which are not as endangered as the Kemp’s ridley, but still face numerous threats.

“At the end of the day getting these turtles back to the wild is what we are doing and what we want,” Kennedy said. “We want them back in the ocean.”

by NBC Montana StaffThu, November 28th 2024 at 5:57 PM

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Officials lift trap setback requirements for many seasonally closed roads in Ravalli County.

RAVALLI COUNTY, Mont. — Officials lift trap setback requirements for many seasonally closed roads in Ravalli County.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission proposed and approved of the amendment that aims to lift the requirements for roads that are seasonally closed to motor vehicles, including off-highway vehicles, during trapping season.

Previously, all roads and hiking trails designated by administrative signs and open to vehicle use in Ravalli County were subject to a 50-foot setback for ground set traps and snares, which is the standard throughout most of the state.

There will be no changes to existing hiking trail trap setback requirements or areas currently closed to specific types of trapping in the county, including areas of Lake Como Ski Area and Bass Creek Recreation Area.

Trapping season for bobcats runs from Dec. 1st through Feb. 15th and the season for wolves begins on Jan. 1st and runs through February 15th in Ravalli County.

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Predator and nongame trapping don’t have established season dates and may take place year-round.

For a list of the places in Ravalli County with seasonal road closures where the standard setbacks will be retained, click here.

By Ashley Soebroto,Staff WriterDec 5, 2024

FULTON — A Schoharie County man has been charged with illegally hunting a bear after luring it with food and posting pictures of the deceased animal on social media.

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The man is facing charges for hunting a bear over bait and illegally killing it. State environmental conservation officers found out about the situation Oct. 13 after initially responding to a complaint about youth hunters who were not with an adult in their immediate vicinity — and that the man was supposed to be supervising them, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

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Several days later on Oct. 20, officers received a report that the same individual had hunted a bear and posted pictures with the animal’s body on social media. 

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The bear’s carcass was at a local processor where officers found it with an incomplete hunter tag — a physical paper that proves that the hunter has the legal right to kill a specific animal during hunting season. Officers also inspected where the bear was killed Oct. 24 and found cracked corn and sunflower seeds.

After confronting the man at his residence, the individual admitted to putting grain in front of several blinds prior to hunting. 

The man is also facing charges with a tagging violation and failure to properly supervise youth hunters. The person was issued tickets in Fulton Town Court.