On Wednesday, Jan. 23, the Texas State Aquarium (TSA) received about 300 cold-stunned Sea Turtles to begin rehabilitation.Several local and state agencies have helped in the search for Sea Turtles, but also helping out was the Autonomy Research Institute (ARI) at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. TSA and the university have created a partnership for this reason.If we were to go out and look for turtles, you either have people doing a foot patrol on the beach or you have people in boats," Texas State Aquarium President and CEO Jesse Gilbert said. "So, youre line of sight, you dont really have elevation so some of those floating turtles you might not be able to see.The ARI has been helping by sending a drone over the Laguna Madre. Its limiting the danger to workers spending too much time in the cold and cutting down on the time it takes to find the cold-stunned turtles.Tye Payne, ARI's Associate Director for Public Operations, said they tested everything out before the freezing weather approached the Coastal Bend. A team of four to six was sent to Bird Island Basin and was set up in about 15 minutes.We were able to send a team out to the same location. Do search for turtles. We actually had two turtles as soon as we pulled up and so our guys were helping to get them out of the water, Payne said.I really think its setting the stage for ocean conservation throughout the United States," Gilbert said. "Were able to test some different theories here. Were able to kind of proof test how does the interface work back and forth with the rescue center with the A&M group, with the agencies. So, were really getting to work out some of the kinks. We have enough events in Corpus Christi around cold-stunnings that we can kind of figure out what this looks like. And, I think Sea Turtles are the tip of the spear."There's a camera on the ground and the drone has a live feed as well. It's fed to ARI Mission Control and all agencies involved. So, if a turtle is spotted, a team can immediately head to that area.Payne said he comes from a background in emergency management and is thrilled to help in any emergency.I really enjoy being able to work to help responders in any capacity whether its the aquarium and the wildlife, whether its for first responders," he said.Green Sea Turtles are an endangered species, thats why theres an urgency to rescue those in trouble.The Green Sea Turtles, the ones that are stranded here, are very important to sea grass beds," Gilbert said. "And, Sea Grass Beds are very important to Red Drum Fisheries, Flounder Fisheries, Spotted Sea Trout. So, when you pull that species out, its a keystone species, if you pull the keystone species out of the ecosystem, that ecosystem starts to get impacted. So, if we start to impact fisheries, Red Drums, Spotted Sea Trout, Flounder, Texans probably wont appreciate that. Payne said his team will assist TSA on a request basis. Payne hopes their services can expand in the future.For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.