Cold-stunned sea turtles are known to be found in gulf waters like at Padre Island National Sea Shore or Laguna Madre.
However, a group of Aransas County residents says there is a growing number of sea turtles in that county and a bigger need for rescuers.
Before the start of winter, Keep Aransas County Beautiful or KACB, a non-profit organization dedicated to being stewards of the environment, began a cold-stunned sea turtle rescue program.
“No one has really done it here as a citizen group,” said D’Ann Williams, the president for the group.
The organization maintains nearby beaches and land, and they say they’ve spotted a number of sea turtles in the area. So the group invited the public to their first cold-stunned sea turtle training session back in the fall.
“We tried to get as many people involved in a meeting,” said Steven Gregory, another member of KACB. “How are we going to approach this?” he added.
To the group’s surprise, 32 volunteers attended the training session and are now federally trained to rescue sea turtles. They patrol in areas like Mud Island, San Jose Island and the Aransas Bay.
Your Aransas County Turtle Team transported our 1st LIVE Sea Turtle today! He’s Beautiful! Poor little guy is so weak.
Posted by Keep Aransas County Beautiful on Monday, January 7, 2019
“If we have a cold weather event, I hope we as a group do good,” said Gregory. “That’s my front yard. That’s my responsibility.”
When volunteers find a sea turtle, they take it to the ark to be brought back to good health. Meanwhile, the organization also hopes their efforts inform the community about how they too can protect their environment.
“One of our initiatives is to educate our citizens and their role and the conservation of what we have here in Aransas County,” he said.
Members of KACB say the next sea turtle rescue training in Aransas County will be held in late October.
