Find a mysterious box on the beach in Texas? Scientists say it has to do with sea turtles

Marley Malenfant , Austin American-Statesman

Have you been hanging out on Texas beaches and seen some strange objects wash up on the shore?

Are they orange or green-painted blocks? Well, there’s a scientific reason they’re there.

Mysterious boxes are washing up on Texas beaches

According to Chron, mysterious orange-painted blocks with notes attached to them have been washing onto beaches along the Gulf Coast.

Scientists with the Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research and Atmospheric Association Fisheries division released 80 wooden "effigy drifters" from Chandeleur Island, Louisiana, into the northern Gulf of Mexico to help track the movements of stunned sea turtles.

The wooden blocks, which are modeled after sea turtles, are spray-painted neon green, orange, pink, or yellow. They have a GPS device attached and a phone number to call if beachgoers find one. More than half of the effigies are headed to the Texas coast.

Dead sea turtles often wash up on U.S. beaches, and the NOAA classifies these creatures as endangered.

Why are sea turtles endangered?

According to the Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire, six of the seven sea turtle species are classified as threatened or endangered due to human actions and lifestyles.

Here are some reasons listed:

  • Fisheries: Sea turtles virtually everywhere are affected by fisheries, especially longlines, gill nets, and trawls. The most severe of these impacts are death after entanglement, habitat destruction and food web changes.

  • Direct Take: Sea turtles and their eggs are killed by people throughout the world for food, and for products including oil, leather and shell.

  • Coastal Development: Sea turtle habitats are degraded and destroyed by coastal development. This includes both shoreline and seafloor alterations, such as nesting beach degradation, seafloor dredging, vessel traffic, construction, and alteration of vegetation.

  • Pollution: Plastics, discarded fishing gear, petroleum by-products, and other debris harm and kill sea turtles through ingestion and entanglement. Light pollution disrupts nesting behavior and causes hatchling death by leading them away from the sea. Chemical pollutants can weaken sea turtles’ immune systems, making them susceptible to disease.

  • Climate change: Climate change will increase the frequency of extreme weather events, result in loss of nesting beaches, and cause other alterations to critical sea turtle habitats and basic oceanographic processes. It may impact natural sex ratios of hatchlings and increase the likelihood of disease outbreaks for sea turtles.

What to do if you see effigies on the beach

The GCSTR is collecting any of the effigies that wash up on the upper Texas coast and is asking anyone who comes across one to take photos, note the location and contact the sea turtle hotline at 1-866-TURTLE-5 to arrange a drop-off location.

If the drifting blocks are observed floating in the water, the NOAA instructs to leave them be and not disturb them unless instructed by the NOAA. As of Sunday, at least four of the devices have been found in the Galveston area where the center is located.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Find a mysterious box on the beach in Texas? Here's what they are

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