Each summer, hundreds of sea turtles swim into Cape Cod Bay, which sits in the crook of an elbow-shaped peninsula on the East Coast. It’s a great foraging spot during the warm season, but when the weather turns, many of the reptiles struggle to make their way out of the hook-like bay, putting them at risk of getting shocked by the cold waters.

This problem primarily affects Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, the smallest and most endangered of all sea turtles. In recent years, several hundred of these critters have been stranding on Cape Cod each winter, cold, disoriented and in desperate need of help. Now, a study in PLOS One is offering new insight into the conditions that might be driving the turtles onto Massachusetts beaches.

Strandings on Cape Cod in recent years have increased “by nearly an order of magnitude,” according to the study authors. One problem, reported Josh Wood of the Guardian last year, is that the Gulf of Maine, which spans from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, is becoming unusually warm. This in turn draws more turtles into Cape Cod Bay, and encourages them to stay there for longer. But when cold weather hits, the unique topography of the Cape Cod peninsula proves to be a death trap.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-do-cold-shocked-sea-turtles-keep-washing-cape-cod-180973749