An arctic blast that brought a rare snowfall to northern Florida last week left green sea turtles as far south as St. Augustine suffering from a condition known as cold stunning.

Seventeen sea turtles that were found stranded along Florida’s northeastern Atlantic Coast were brought to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, north of West Palm Beach, where they are rehabbing.

“When it’s cold on land, it’s also cold in the ocean. And that led to a number of turtles being beached or very debilitated and just floating in the water,” said Dr. Heather Barron, the chief science officer and veterinarian at the center.

The staff named the rescued turtles after beverages, and they painted their new names on the back of their shells. Veterinarians are treating them with antibiotics, fluids and intravenous nutrition.

While it snowed as far south as northern Florida, which is extremely rare, the frigid temperatures reached South Florida. That meant cold-stunned turtles were also found along Palm Beach County’s coastline.

“It is quite unusual for this to happen in Florida. Sea turtles do migrate, and typically they’re migrating down to Florida for this time of year because of warmer water,” Barron said.

By Wednesday morning, Espresso, Pickle Juice and Ginger Beer were basking in the sunshine in the center’s “Party Tank.”

The turtles arrived in Juno Beach on Friday from the Marine Science Center in Volusia County, Florida. They all suffered from cold stunning, which causes sea turtles to lose mobility and become lethargic. Most of the 17 turtles are expected to be released back into the ocean in a few weeks.

Last year, turtles from Massachusetts were brought to Florida to rehab while suffering from cold stunning.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis is doubling down on his call to get migrants out of the U.S. and into Guantánamo Bay in the wake of President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was leaving the lights on for them at the military base on the Cuban archipelago.

DeSantis posted to social media Wednesday that he’s “happy to send flights from Florida down that way with deportees in tow,” in the wake of Trump saying he’s telling the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to “begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay” for an influx of undocumented immigrants.

“We have 30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo,” Trump said “That’s a tough place to get out of.”

The Trump Executive Order calls “to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs … in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.”

DeSantis floated Florida as a logical launching pad for the removal of people in the country illegally earlier this week.

“I do think they’re gonna use Guantánamo Bay for (an) illegal alien processing site and then they’ll repatriate from their own country from there. What better state to take advantage of that than the state of Florida,” he told podcaster Dave Rubin Tuesday.

Trump said the move brings America “one step closer to eradicating the scourge of migrant crime in our communities once and for all.”

And DeSantis, who thus far has not succeeded in getting Trump to weigh in on the wrangle with the Legislature over an immigration enforcement bill, is ready to help the President make that happen.

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