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Ed Markey speaks out for the sea turtles
“Next up for this common sense bill is to move like Crush from Finding Nemo and catch a current onto a bill package.”
In a rare show of bipartisan support, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) are championing legislation to fund rescue efforts to help save endangered sea turtles.
Markey told Boston.com that states from Massachusetts to Texas have experienced sea turtles being cold-stunned and washed ashore, and efforts to research and rehabilitate them remain underfunded.
If passed, the legislation would create a new grant program authorizing $5 million annually from 2025 through 2030 to fund rescue, recovery, and research of sea turtles in the U.S.
“Next up for this common sense bill is to move like Crush from Finding Nemo and catch a current onto a bill package,” he said in a statement.
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Lawmakers reintroduced the bill on March 5. The bill is awaiting Congress’s final approval.
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Tom Tillis (R-N.C.) co-sponsored the legislation. Rep. Bill Keating introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives in January.
“Slow and steady wins the race,” Markey said.
Markey introduced the bill in 2022, and despite the divisiveness happening in Washington, he says he has built a bipartisan coalition of support for the sea turtles.
“I am hopeful that with this momentum, we will see the bill cross the finish line this congress,” he said.
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Markey’s office said the grant funding is needed. In 2000, rescuers found fewer than 50 sea turtles stranded on the beaches of Cape Cod. By 2022, that number had skyrocketed to 866. During the 2021 cold snap in Texas, more than 12,100 turtles were cold-stunned, but rescue organizations could save only 4,000 of them and return them to the wild.
Markey’s office said volunteers primarily run the rescue efforts that face underfunding, even as rising threats like temperature shifts, red tide events, and entanglement in marine debris make sea turtle strandings more likely.
“These are prehistoric creatures, and I think so much of this is symbolic of what is happening to our ocean,” said New England Aquarium President and CEO Vikki Spruill.
The aquarium currently relies on corporate and foundation donors to fund its sea turtle research and rescue efforts, which cost about $1 million annually. If the bill passes, the legislation would provide more consistent funding for these efforts.
Spruill explained that the sea turtle hospital in Quincy treats 500 to 600 turtles yearly. Research predicts the region could see thousands of cold-stunned sea turtles by 2030.
The hospital routinely treats loggerhead, green sea, and Kemp’s ridley turtles, some of the world’s most endangered turtles.
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Spruill said climate change plays a significant role in increasing cold stuns.
Turtles swim from the south up the Gulf Stream, which acts as a warm water bridge into Cape Cod Bay. Over the years, the duration of this phenomenon has increased, allowing turtles to access Cape Cod Bay more than ever before.
But, since the Gulf of Maine is warming at an unprecedented rate, turtles are traveling farther north from the southern beaches where they hatch their eggs to feed.
When the temperature drops in the fall, the turtles become hypothermic when they cannot find their way back around the hook of Cape Cod. As a result, many wash up on the shores. Volunteers bring the turtles to the hospital.
The aquarium’s research arm, the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, also works to collect data once the turtles are released back into the ocean.
Similar to what other nonprofits are seeing, cuts to federal grants will also impact the research on the turtles, Spruill said. The center receives about $13 million every two years for research.
However, Spruill says everyone can get behind a sea turtle.
“It is hopeful because we’ve seen bipartisan support for this,” she said. “It is a little bright spot in a sea of turmoil.”
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