New Legislation Could Bolster Local Sea Turtle Rescue Efforts
A recently re-introduced piece of legislation proposing to establish a multi-million dollar grant program to fund nationwide efforts to rescue, rehabilitate, and research stranded sea turtles could be “game-changing” for small marine animal hospitals like the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay.
“Transformational is probably a better word,” said Connie Merigo, president and executive director at the National Marine Life Center. Ms. Merigo spoke with the Enterprise this week about the Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance Act and the benefits that would come from the influx of federal funding.
The legislation’s lead sponsors are US Representative William R. Keating (D-Bourne) and Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and John Cornyn (R-TX). The bipartisan and bicameral legislation seeks to establish a $30 million grant program at the Department of Commerce and authorizes $5 million annually in new funding from 2024 through 2029. Applicants with an established record of turtle rescue, rehab and research—such as the National Marine Life Center—will be prioritized.
Ms. Merigo said that regular funding dedicated to sea turtle rehab has been lacking for years, despite resources being available for adjacent studies like nesting or water research. Rehabilitating these marine animals, which are also endangered species, is not a low-cost task, she said.
“You need to have saltwater access, tanks, pools, veterinary coverage, pumps to move the water, life support to keep the water clean, and then on top of all of that, the regular occupancy bills, which is just keeping the lights on, paying the water and sewer and things like that,” Ms. Merigo said. “It really adds up.”
Small, independent facilities, like the NMLC, rely heavily on volunteers to keep operations going. Without volunteers, Ms. Merigo said, “we would not be able to do what we do.”
“Volunteers allow us to handle a high number of animals coming in on the same day,” she said, “which is what we do in this area, thanks to the cold stunning that happens every fall.”
In 2022, a total of 866 sea turtles, mostly cold-stunned, stranded on Cape Cod. When compared to the recorded number of 49 stranded sea turtles at the turn of the millennium, it is clear that turtles are stranding at higher and higher rates.
“The trend is upward,” Ms. Merigo said. “Back in the mid-1990s when I first started [in sea turtle rescue], we wouldn’t expect a whole lot of turtles to survive. I would name them after the reindeer or the seven dwarfs—that gives you an idea of how few we expected to actually live and how few were stranding.”
Yet the numbers have only continued to climb; Ms. Merigo noted that 2014 and 2020 each saw over a 1,000 turtles stranded on Cape Cod. Climate change is a huge part of it, and according to a study on increased cold-stunning events for Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in the warming waters of the northwest Atlantic, the number of stranded Kemp’s ridley sea turtles in Cape Cod Bay is expected to reach as many as 2,349 by 2031.
“That’s just eight years away,” Ms. Merigo said. “This paper was published in 2019, and we can already see that it’s coming; it’s been coming. That’s why they did this work: because they were really curious about the uptick in strandings.”
The number of turtles expected within the next decade is “staggering,” Ms. Merigo said, adding that it is even more imperative that the turtles are an endangered species.
“Most people will go their entire lives and never see an endangered species for real unless it’s on the television or something,” she said. “This would be an astronomical number of endangered species coming ashore across the Cape.”
The problem, she continued, is trying to keep up with the rising numbers without any federal support: “We’re going to build out more tanks, but can we do it fast enough?”
The study was conducted by prominent marine biologists in the region, including some from the Massachusetts Audubon Society at Wellfleet Bay, which is one of the NMLC’s partners through the state’s sea turtle rescue network. Other organizations involved include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the New England Aquarium. These groups work together to recover, hold, transport, rehabilitate, stabilize and eventually release cold-stunned turtles found on the beaches of Cape Cod, utilizing a chain of command that puts the NMLC in charge of turtle triage and treatment. Roughly 80 percent of the animals rehabilitated survive, Ms. Merigo said, so the group knows that the cold-stunned medical protocols being used tend to yield the ideal outcome.
Despite having partners, the NMLC does all of its own fundraising, marketing, and social media, even though there is no designated department for that. It relies heavily on volunteer work, grant writing, foundations and individual donors. Being a small rehab operation is tough, Ms. Merigo said, especially when a lack of federal funds is the biggest barrier to keeping pace with increased stranding rates.
“Space is a big problem; funding is a huge problem,” Ms. Merigo said. “If we can solve both of those—which this act will—it will help. It doesn’t solve all our problems, but it certainly helps to have some dedicated funding that we can apply for. It’s transformational for us.”
The National Marine Life Center’s current facility, on Main Street in Buzzards Bay, was built out by a previous director from 2000 to the early 2010s, but it was never fully completed.
“There is a massive section of this hospital that’s never been built out,” Ms. Merigo said. She took over as the NMLC’s director about two years ago, bringing with her 28 years of experience with the New England Aquarium’s sea turtle program.
“When I looked in the hospital and saw all that space, all I could think of was ‘this is the solution to the endangered species crisis that happens every year on Cape Cod,’” Ms. Merigo said. The building is ready to go, she added, they just need to finish it. It might not be able to hold all 2,349 of the cold-stunned turtles expected by 2031, but the facility does have “huge potential” to provide more holding space.
Should some of the grant money proposed under the Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance Act be awarded to the NMLC, Ms. Merigo said it would go toward turtle rehab rather than facility upgrades to the building. But just knowing that there are funding opportunities coming down the pipeline, she said, allows her to “shift gears” and reassess things at the center.
“Down the road, we definitely will be looking at a capital campaign to build out that hospital,” she said, “but this funding isn’t going to be enough to do it… it’s a big hospital, there is room for a lot of tanks in there so it’s definitely going to cost a lot more than what would be available to any one organization.”
Although grant money will not solve everything, Ms. Merigo said that it can certainly help support sea turtle care and treatment by covering necessities like veterinary bills, medication, and food for in-house animals—something Ms. Merigo said requires an “insane” budget.
“We appreciate any help that is available to us,” she said. “We do need support. If anybody is interested in getting involved, either from a fundraising aspect or volunteering, we are always looking for more help—and certainly donations help, too.”
Those interested in learning more about the National Marine Life Center, its work, volunteer opportunities and additional ways to support its mission are encouraged to visit www.nmlc.org.