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STORY: These ‘cold-stunned’ sea turtles have found refuge at a new coastal rescue center

Locator: Corpus Christi, Texas

The turtles are being immobilized by a sharp drop in air and water temperatures

[Carrie Ullmer / Head veterinarian, Texas State Aquarium's Port of Corpus Christi Center]

“In Texas, we experience acute cold-stunning events, meaning the temperature goes from normal wintertime temperature and drops precipitously.”

“We call it cold-stunning, because that's basically what happens. They get stunned because their body temperature drops so quickly, their heart rate drops extremely low, the respiratory rate drops very low, their metabolism drops really low and they just basically can't do anything."

The 26,000-square-foot hospital is one of the largest coastal wildlife rescue facilities in the U.S.

It operates a special CT scanner dedicated to wildlife to take images of the rescued animals

“The nice thing about this particular unit is that the scanner moves and the table stays still. And so we find that our patients tolerate that very well because they're not actually moving during the CT scan. So you'll see with some of these turtles, we don't even have to sedate them or anesthetize them to be able to perform the scan. Otherwise, the technology is very similar to the CT units that you would see in a hospital setting for humans.”

Several rehabilitated sea turtles have been released back into the wild