January 2010 was extremely cold in N.W. Florida. St. Joe’s Bay, near Port St. Joe, is a shallow Bay and with 14 nights well below freezing the bay’s water became very cold. The bay is a winter home to many sea turtles because of it’s many grasses. Green are the most dominate sea turtle in the bay. Sea turtles, being reptiles, need warm water so with the very cold water we had over 1800 sea turtles strand. These sea turtles, cold stunned ,were picked up and taken to Sea World in Panama City Beach, warmed up, checked out, and then released when there were warm. South Walton Turtle Watch was proud to take part in this great adventure. We are sorry to say over 600 of these sea turtles died but the rest lived and hopefully will come back to nest on our beaches. We hope to see these sea turtles back on our beaches as nesting adults.
