Climate change-related warming of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico is causing fewer sea turtles to migrate to warmers waters in the winter, leading more of the creatures to become trapped along the Texas coast when the temperature drops, said Tony Amos, a researcher at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute and director of the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) in Port Aransas. Amos said this could explain an uptick in the number of turtles needing help to survive colder water temperatures, which can stun their systems and put them in danger of developing pneumonia and shock, or dying.
The institute has a long history of rehabilitation for sea turtles, but it had never served so many at once as it did last winter, with nearly 300 in its care at one time, for a total of 528 last winter, according to a UT Marine Institute press release. More than 93 percent of the sea turtles brought in alive were successfully rehabilitated and returned to the wild.
http://www.portasouthjetty.com/news/2014-10-09/Front_Page/Helping_sea_turtles.html