There is never a day that goes by at Panama City Beach and surrounding areas where there is not something interesting to do, we love to highlight some of the unique and fun things that happen around town. January 2025 brought a quick burst of freezing temperatures and the first snowfall the area has seen in decades. While our winters are short and very mild, usually non-existent when compared to most of the country, the short lived freezing temps affected some of the local wildlife.
One of those affected was the local sea turtle population, the freezing temps "cold stunned" them, which happens when sea temperature drop to approximately 50 degrees or less. This can be dangerous to the sea turtles and cause them not to swim or eat like normal, they will try to escape by heading to the beach or simply wash up unable to swim as usual. Luckily, we are lucky to have many resources in Florida along the Emerald Coast. Gulf World Marine Institute in Panama City Beach, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation as well as several other rescue organizations were able to rescue upwards of 1,200 sea turtles from the beach and keep them safe until it was time to return back to the waters.
On January 29th, in neighboring Gulf County, off beautiful Cape San Blas with nearly 1,000 onlookers, almost 400 of these turtles were ready to be released back into water. Locals and visitors were welcome to and watch as workers carried each individual turtle back to sea and released them.
Events like this are great to take kids too to see and learn about some of the beautiful creatures in our oceans. Here's a list of most of the rescue organizations that participated and are constantly rescuing sea life off our coast that are good to follow for future operations and release events and can be great resource to find information on the outdoors here when planning your next trip down to PCB.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (https://myfwc.com/)
Gulf World Marine Institute (Located in PCB) (https://gulfworldmarinepark.com/)
The Gulf and East Bay Sea Turtle Patrol
Indian Pass Sea Turtle Patrol, Florida Department of Environmental Protection
St. Joseph Peninsula State Park personnel, Tyndall Air Force Base
Eglin Air Force Base Natural Resources staff
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
NOAA Fisheries Service
We highly recommend following Gulf World Marine Institute's Facebook page for future events and releases, you find their Facebook page here.
Here's a local news story from Channel 7 WJHG, on the turtle release (please note the story begins at 4:24 mark)
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