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2 sea turtles stranded on South Shore beaches

QUINCY (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) – Two large loggerhead sea turtles have stranded on South Shore beaches since Monday.

A live loggerhead was retrieved from Nantasket Beach on Tuesday. On Monday, another 40-pounder was rescued in the Humarock section of Scituate.

New England Aquarium spokesman Tony LaCasse says cold-stunned sea turtles strand annually on Cape Cod, but almost always on the southern and eastern beaches of Cape Cod Bay from Sandwich to Truro. Typically, the northwest and northeast winds of late autumn create enough wave activity to drive the floating, nearly immobile marine reptiles ashore on those windward towns.

LaCasse added that strandings on the South Shore are very rare events, and normally are confined to the discovery of long dead, smaller turtles early in the winter.

Seventy-four re-warmed and stabilized sea turtles have been taken to other marine animal rescue facilities up and down the East Coast, including 35 sea turtles that were flown from Cape Cod to Florida aboard a Coast Guard plane earlier this month.

If you encounter a sea turtle, alive or appearing dead, call the Aquarium's Marine Animal Hotline at 617-973-5427 or contact your local animal control officer.