One of the most destructive hurricane seasons Georgia has seen officially ends Saturday. Amid the havoc of Helene and Milton, many turned to social media to check on those in the storms’ paths only to discover a whole new anxiety: What was happening underwater?
From behind cellphone screens, legions of animal lovers grew invested in what seemed to be the real-time ocean voyages of GPS-tagged marine animals swimming in the storm-tossed waves. Many worried and wondered if they would be OK.
“I’m (gonna) need you to get out of there, Bill!” Aimee Hall, a cast member from the “Floribama Shore” reality TV show posted to TikTok.
The cause of her concern: A dolphin she feared could get caught in Hurricane Milton’s path.
Thousands responded with well-wishes for Bill and other animals, all of whom have been weathering storms since the beginning of time.
Yuca, a whale shark named after the Yucatan Peninsula, where he was tagged by Georgia Aquarium researchers, also drew attention.
“My whale shark is right near Tampa,” one concerned person wrote. “Yuca, get the hell out of here! There’s a hurricane coming.”
But aquarium spokesperson Paige Hale told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “the public doesn’t need to worry about Yuca being in the hurricane’s path” because tracking data is not relayed in real-time. The delay is to protect the animal and due to reporting speeds, she said.
Credit: Georgia Aquarium
Credit: Georgia Aquarium
So what does happen to wildlife during hurricanes, anyway?
Over decades of tracking and study, scientists have found that, in general, some animals evacuate and others hunker down during major storms — much like humans.
Bill, for example, was tracked by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program in 2022, during Hurricane Ian, as part of a broader study on dolphin behavior. Since then, the group has tracked more dolphins during hurricanes Idalia, Debbie and Helene, the program’s director, Randall Wells, told the AJC.
“In each case, the animals’ movements were in the direction of the wind-driven seas during the storm,” he said. In other words: the dolphins rode the waves churned up by the storm’s counterclockwise spin.
That trajectory takes them further out to sea and away from prey. But once the storms are over land, they quickly return closer to shore to better hunting grounds.
While the team has yet to analyze dive depth data during the storms, Wells said he didn’t think there would be a need for dolphins to seek deeper water since they have to surface periodically to breathe air.
“The idea is that they’re swimming with the waves, that has to facilitate their breathing and their movements,” he said.
Other marine animals, such as sharks and whale sharks, do often evacuate to deeper waters, though it varies by species, research has shown. Tiger sharks, for example, have been observed staying closer to shore, where they then start feeding on smaller animals that were either displaced or killed, according to a study of large shark behavior during hurricanes Matthew and Irma.
The location data from these kinds of studies allow people to follow animals using online platforms designed to engage the public in wildlife conservation efforts.
Some birds and land animals, like deer and turkeys, may know to evacuate or look for higher ground during a storm due to the change in barometric pressure. The lower the pressure, the stronger the storm, and studies have shown that many animals seem to sense those changes and alter their behavior accordingly.
But some animals do not survive. Migrating birds can get trapped in the eye of the storm and die of exhaustion while over water. Flooding and felled trees can destroy land animals’ homes.
Among Florida’s many storm refugees seeking shelter in Georgia were some corals housed at the Florida Aquarium. They were transported to the Georgia Aquarium in a whirlwind mission just hours before Milton made landfall in Florida on Oct. 9.
The team left Atlanta around 9 a.m. and arrived in Tampa just after 5:30 p.m.
“There was no time for chatter or anything; it was secure the corals and go,” said Kim Stone, the Georgia Aquarium’s director of fishes and invertebrates.
The crew arrived back in Atlanta with the corals around 8:30 a.m. the next day.
Credit: Georgia Aquarium
Credit: Georgia Aquarium
The corals, 35 individual colonies representing three species, are part of the Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project, which is an effort to protect corals ahead of an outbreak of the stony coral tissue loss disease. A relocation plan was already in the works, but Milton’s fury put it on a fast track since there was concern the facilities housing the corals could get damaged.
Now, Stone said, the corals may end up permanently staying in Georgia, where researchers will aim to get them to reproduce.
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