It's a mystery even marine biologists can't solve: Why are rare sea turtles washing ashore on the coast of British Columbia?
In the last three weeks, two green sea turtles and an olive ridley sea turtle have been found on beaches on the west side of Vancouver Island, near Tofino. Two of the turtles have died but staff at the Vancouver Aquarium are still trying to revive the green turtle found this week.
"What happened, we believe, is that the turtles were up in this area," Dr. Dennis Thoney, director of animal operations at the aquarium, told CTV News. "Then there was a cold snap in September and possibly again in October and possibly it kept the animal from leaving the area."
A threatened tropical species, the turtles somehow strayed from their warmer habitats near Hawaii and Mexico.
Caitlin Birdsall of the B.C. Cetacean Sightings Network said, "Definitely having three injured or dead ones wash ashore in such a short period of time, especially at this time of year in December, is quite unusual."
With the latest turtle hooked up to an EKG in the hopes of detecting a heartbeat once it is warmed up, Thoney knows what put it into a comatose state.
"The animal is what we call cold stung," he said. "That means that the temperature dropped on it in the environment and it got so cold that the animal couldn't survive anymore. At least, it couldn't move around anymore."
But keeping them alive is important.
"These things can live close to 100 years," Thoney said. "So losing one or two can be significant when you start looking at the entire population."
With a report from CTV's Vancouver Bureau Chief Sarah Galashan
