“It’s not easy being green.”

Kermit’s lament could be appropriated by another creature that is struggling this season. In the last few weeks, five green sea turtles have been found on Vineyard beaches. Three turtles were alive, but barely, while the other two were deceased.

It is sea turtle stranding time, a period of a few months in the late fall and early winter when sea turtles cold stun. As cold-blooded, or ectothermic animals, sea turtles cannot generate their own body heat, so they assume the temperatures of their surroundings. As the waters cool, the sea turtles that have come north to feed in our nutrient-rich waters should make their way back south.

However, some juvenile turtles don’t make it in time and, once the water temperature falls below 55 degrees, these reptiles become hypothermic. Once this happens, the comatose turtles cannot swim, so get pushed by wind and tides and can end up on Cape and Islands beaches. Beached or stranded turtles often seem dead to the observer, but may not be and need help quickly.

If you find a sea turtle, alive, dead or status unknown, the best thing you can do is to call the folks who are permitted and trained to help these protected animals. Staff at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary have the know-how and the credentials to assist. Beach walkers, anglers, everyone, should put the turtle hotline number (508-349-2615, Option 2) into your phone, so you are ready should you find a sea turtle.

What not to do is try to go it alone as you may do more damage than good. Turtles should never be returned to the water or taken into your car or house to be warmed up. They should be left on the beach and gently moved above the high tide line (held by its shell, not the head or flippers), covered with seaweed or wrack, the area marked so it can be refound or GPS coordinates taken, and the turtle hotline called right away. You can stay at the site as the experts may direct you to take action to assist.

The recent green sea turtle find

ers all got these turtles the help they needed. Live turtles are currently receiving treatment off-Island, while the deceased animals are being held for eventual necropsies (animal autopsies) that help researchers learn more about their lives, condition and cause of death.

Three of the five turtles found recently have an interesting story. Two of the live and one of the dead green sea turtles were found on the shores of Tisbury Great Pond. What is curious about that location is that the pond is currently closed to the ocean and has been since mid-September. What that means is that these turtles came into the pond sometime between its opening on August 21 and its closing three weeks later and lived there until they recently cold stunned.

Those pond-dwelling turtles seemed to have found enough to eat. While greens are the only sea turtles that are herbivorous as adults, juvenile turtles can be omnivorous, consuming marine worms, young crustaceans, aquatic insects and sea grass and algae. These turtles are so named because the consumption of all of those greens cause their flesh to be similarly colored.

Juvenile green turtles are the most likely age group to strand and when they come up on the beach they are usually dinner-plate sized. These long-lived reptiles reach maturity at more than 20 years old and by then grow a 35-inch shell.

The lucky live green turtles that were rescued and are being rehabilitated might have the same change of heart as Kermit did. In a later verse of that memorable song, he realizes that:

“Green is the color of spring
And green can be cool and friendly-like
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain, or tall like a tree.
When green is all there is to be, it could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
Wonder, I am green and it’ll do fine, it’s beautiful!
And I think it’s what I want to be.”

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature and The Nature of Martha’s Vineyard.