G.

Vlez-Rubio1,2, A. Estrades1, V. Ferrando1, J. Toms2 1Karumb, Avda. Gral. Rivera 3245, CP 11200, Montevideo, URUGUAY (gabriela.velez@uv.es) 2InsHtuto Cavanilles, Universidad de Valencia Apdo. 22085, E-46071 Valencia, SPAIN.

INTRODUCTION
Hypothermic, or cold-stunning, occurs when a sea turtle is abruptly exposed to cold water, normally as a result of unusual cold weather or sudden cold fronts, and it cannot compensate fast enough to avoid a sudden drop in body temperature (Witherington & Ehrhart, 1989), when sea turtles trapped in cold waters may become lethargic and buoyant, oaHng at the surface (Milton & Lutz 2003) and the eect of the winds on the sea surface could cause sea turtle mass strandings. In Uruguayan coastal waters, the hibernaHon strategy postulated by Felger et al. (1976) has been described as a survival strategy of juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) to tolerate low temperatures during the austral winter (Marqnez-Souza et al. 2011). It is known that some green turtles remain in the area during the coldest months, as reected by stranding events (Vlez-Rubio 2011), radio telemetry, in water surveys and satellite telemetry. In the present study we report a green turtle mass stranding event occurred in Uruguay in July 2012 due to a sudden dramaHc decrease of sea surface temperatures.

STRANDINGS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS IN THE AREA

STRANDINGS RESULTS
Karumb recorded previous cold-stunned sea turtles in the period of the last 12 years (Fig. 4) but the 2012 event has been the one with the highest number of turtles stranded recorded. No other species stranded during those days. Ninety juvenile green turtle strandings were recorded in the Uruguayan coast from the 13th to 25th of July 2012, being the 15th, 16th and the 17th the days with the highest number of strandings. Most of them were recorded in the external estuarine zone (departments of Canelones and Maldonado, Fig. 1). Twenty of the turtles were found dead. The others were sent to Karumb RehabilitaHon Center in Montevideo and other centers for recovery.
SST (C)

Fig. 1: Map of Uruguay. IEZ (inner estuarine zone), OEZ (outer estuarine zone) and OZ (oceanic zone). The green turtle mass stranding (big red point) occurred in Punta del Este. Small red points indicate solitaries green turtles strandings.

DAYS

Fig. 2: Daily sea surface temperature during July in the three areas that we divided the Uruguayan coast: IEZ (Inner estuarine zone) in green, OEZ (Outer estuarine zone) in red, AZ (AtlanHc zone) in blue. Note that the highest temperatures in the IEZ correspond to the areas well inside the Rio de la Plata estuary.

Fig. 4: Two stranded green turtles. Note the week physical condiHon.

Fig. 5: Green turtles in Karumb RehabilitaHon center in Montevideo.

Most of the 35 turtles at the Karumb center appeared to be in good physical condiHon but half of them presented oaHng problems, pneumonia, skin infecHon diseases and sepHcemia (Fig.5). All the individuals were juveniles (mean SD curved carapace length, notch to Hp [CCLn-t]= 39.9 3.96 cm). Karumb realesed 31 of these turtles (Fig. 6).

During July 2012 record-breaking cold weather occurred throughout Uruguay (Fig. 2). The seawater surface temperatures went down under 10 degrees Celsius (C), normally the seawater mean temperature varies between 11 to 12 C in this month. From 12th to 19th of July in the Rio de la Plata estuarine inuence zone of the Uruguayan coast the temperature dropped suddenly; specically in Punta del Este (department of Maldonado, South-East Uruguay) and in Montevideo where decreased as low as 9 and 8.5C, respecHvely (Fig. 3). Prevailing winds those days were from South and Southwest. The 15th of July southwestern winds reached 25-30 knots.

Fig. 6: Releasing one of the green turtles rehabilitated from the mass stranding event in Piriapolis (Maldonado).

The abrupt decrease in sea water temperature and the prevailing winds in the area probably caused this mass stranding event in Uruguayan coast. Monitoring these event provides a unique opportunity to obtain informa]on about this phenomenon and the consequent impact on sea turtle popula]ons that spent the whole year in this temperate region of the South Western Atlan]c ocean.
REFERENCES
Felger RS, et al (1976) Winter dormancy in sea turtles: independent discovery and exploitaHon in the Gulf of California by two local cultures. Science, 191: 283-85. MarHnez-Souza G et al. (2011) Cerro Verde, Uruguay: a year-round feeding area for juveniles green turtles? Thirty one Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and ConservaHon. InternaHonal Sea Turtle Society, San Diego, USA. Milton SL & Lutz PL (2003) Physiological and geneHc responses to environmental stress, pp. 163-197. In: Lutz P.L. et al., Edits. The biology of sea turtle. Vol II.Florida: CRC Press. R Development Core Team (2010) R: A language and enviroment for staHsHcal compuHng. R FoundaHon for StaHsHcal CompuHng, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0. Stark JD et al. (2007) OSTIA : An operaHonal, high resoluHon, real Hme, global sea surface temperature analysis system., Oceans 07 IEEE Aberdeen, conference proceedings. Marine challenges: coastline to deep sea. Aberdeen, Scotland.IEEE. Vlez-Rubio G (2011) Estudio espacio temporal de los varamientos de tortugas marinas en Uruguay. Tesis de maestria. Universidad de Valencia. Verspeek J. A at al. (2009), ValidaHon and calibraHon of ASCAT using CMOD5.n, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 48, 1, 386-395. Witherington B.e. & ehrhart l.m (1989) Hypothermic stunning and mortality ofmarine turtles in the Indian River lagoon sisytem, Florida. Copeia

Fig. 3: Sea surface temperature during July 2013. Maps show the inuence of the Malvinas current that favours the entrance of cold water in the Rio de la Plata area. Note lower temperatures in the central map.

ACKNOWLEGMENTS
Authors are really grateful to all Karumb members and volunteers who once formed part of the NGO. Thanks also to all the persons (shermen, naval prefecture, life guard service, rangers, civil organizaHons, ciHzens). Authors wish to thank to the Marine Zoology Unit of the University of Valencia in the last part of this work. JT is supported by project CGL2011-30413 of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and compeHHveness.