Green Sea Turtle Hatchlings!

Our lone green sea turtle nest was overdue for assessment last night, so I headed to the beach in the early evening for the tortuous count.

I knew there were 165 eggs and only about 50 hatchlings so far -- I didn't want to find a bunch of embryos that didn't make it.



I ended up stopping the assessment almost immediately after digging into the nest, as this little live pipped turtle lifted it's head to greet the fading sunlight.



This little guy was just under the surface of the sand as well, and raring to go for a swim.



You can still see his egg-tooth, that he, or she, used to help break out of the shell. Other than that, he seemed completely ready to go!



He, or she, just needed some directions to the sea. I don't know why he's looking to me for advice - I can get lost in a paper bag!

Sometimes, nests don't hatch the way we expect, all in one giant wave. This nest seems to have small groups emerging every few days.



When we do find just one or two on an assessment (or an attempted assessment) we may let them go while there is still some light, so I was able to get a few good photos.



Check out the size of this hatchlings shadow... It's overwhelming next to the toddling turtle!



Here comes the watery world!



Watch that power stroke into the mighty Gulf of Mexico...



They are even more beautiful after being washed by their first wave (you have to click on the photo to enlarge it to really appreciate how stunning they are).



Aren't they just adorable?

The Seven Dwarfs and Gracie

The green (Chelonia mydas) nest is finally hatching, but it's been a little odd as hatchlings emerge in small waves.



The greens are easily distinguished from our loggerheads and Kemp's by their smooth-nosed profiles...



and brilliant white bellies.



This group seems to have emerged a little early, perhaps pushed out by more rambunctious siblings.



Three still have distinct belly folds...



and one is just a little bit pale.



One little guy, Doc, does seem ready to go,



though he can't find his way out! How's that for a traffic jam?

I took six of the dwarfs to turtle rehab at the Gulfarium, where they will receive care for the next 24 hours, and will be encouraged to swim tomorrow.



For now, Dopey, Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy, Bashful, and Grumpy are all separated,



in coolers of damp sand,



tucked in with sand blankets from their original nest,



and resting until they seem more active.



Derrick, Amanda, Rachel and Marcy at the Gulfarium will provide water and other nutrients if necessary, until they're ready to go, like Doc (photo above).

It's good to know they are in capable hands...



Clover, our rescued green from last year, is still living with the folks at the Gulfarium as well, and she's gotten so big.



Maybe she'll swim free soon as well!

Nest Number 24

Perdido Key in the morning...



We've officially doubled last years nest total. With only 12 nests, 2007 was the worst year ever for sea turtles at Gulf Islands National Seashore. This year had to be better.



Today's crawl was rather hard to read because of rain and ghost crabs, but with a width of 39 inches, it's either a huge loggerhead, or a green (but only if the trampled crawl was opposite instead of alternate).



Check out those eggs! One of them had funny little knobs on the edge:



Nest PK6271 was a little close to the sea. The turtle even dug one body pit at the edge of the surf! The bottom of her nest was wet, so it had to be moved or we'd lose the entire clutch.



The nest is now safely nestled about 100 feet north, at the foot of the dunes in a post-Ivan dune restoration area, just east of the park's entrance.

A Kemp's Nest at 9 am

After a stormy morning, a very excited VIP, Valerie Walker, called us twice this morning. The first time, it was to check a false crawl that looked a little questionable. There were no eggs, but we were happy Valerie called -- it's good to check into these things so we can protect any developing nest.



She called again about fifteen minutes after we left the beach. Two park visitors had just watched a Kemp's digging around in the sand and then entering the Gulf of Mexico.



The body pit was very small, but that's typical of a Kemp's nest. Valerie and Michelle set out to measure the crawl, and I quickly found the eggs.



Since the mama did such a good job, the eggs will stay right where she laid them til they hatch in two months. I can't wait to see the hatchlings. Great job everyone!

More Rainbows, Cloudbursts and Just Plain Sunlight...

Just another beautifully imperfect day...



Did I mention there were three turtle nests today? Two loggerheads (Caretta caretta) and a Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) nested in the Santa Rosa area. With the loggerhead from yesterday, that brings our season total to 15 so far -- three more than we had all of last year!



With all the nests, stormfronts, rainbows and just pure sunshine today, you'll have to forgive me if I'm a bit of a pollyanna again. I really do think we should start thinking in terms of recovery for these animals instead of extinction. More on that topic later.



Some of theses are a little faded -- I didn't think to grab my polarizing filter until later.



This is the only good shot I have with my polarizing filter -- the rest of the time, it was raining too hard for me to keep my camera out long enough to put it all together.



These very localized storms and rainbows are just like the turtle stories -- localized bright and dark spots. Nesting populations are extinct in places, and we haven't figured out how to replace them. Scientists and conservationists have tried for hundreds of years to bring the green (Chelonia mydas) back to nest in Bermuda (see section 5.5) with no luck. They have foraging turtles from geneticially distinct nesting populations in the Caribbean, but over 300 years of effort and protection haven't brought them back to nest.



In Florida, Costa Rica and elsewhere, the green turtles are doing better. Check out these little guys from a Santa Rosa area nest last year. The one below has some extra scutes, and isn't as dark as he/she should be...



Leatherbacks are crashing in the Pacific, with an estimated 90% decline in the last 20 years. That's pretty bad. Warning bells are ringing there, and it's not a drill. Extinction is possible. Conservation efforts in the Pacific region are lagging behind those in the Atlantic basin, and it will be many years before we see stabilization, or maybe even growth, of the nesting populations there.



As our knowledge of these amazing animals and their roles in the ocean ecosystem improve, the work of protecting them becomes more co-operative. No one wants to see these magnificent reptiles disappear! These little hatchlings are from a nest we had in Barbados in 2000. Leatherbacks here are doing a little better, thanks to increased understanding of their behavior, migration and feeding habits, in conjunction with a lot of grassroots efforts and international co-operation.



No one knows how significant the decline has been for hawksbills (Eretmochelys imbricata), like my buddy Wrong Way Peach Fuzz. Recent research suggests there used to be 11 million hawksbills in the Caribbean Sea alone. The current population estimate is about 30,000 animals. Trapped in pools, hunted for their beautiful shells and deeply effected by the health of coral reefs and sponges, hawksbills continue to struggle.



Jordanna, Jim, a team of NMFS scientists and I satellite tagged and tracked Peach Fuzz, and 19 of her friends, to try to help stem the trade in 'tortoiseshell' or 'bekko'. We had to convince the world that they didn't belong to a single country -- they were migratory animals that are citizens of the sea, not Japan, Cuba, Antigua or anywhere else. You can see the Peach Fuzz story here: Wrong Way Peach Fuzz: A Turtle Tale



The real success story, of course, is the Kemp's ridley, and headstarting. No one thought it had worked when they suspended the project after 20+ years, but the turtles are proving us all wrong. These resilient animals, given a chance, will come back from the brink of extinction with a little concerted effort and co-operation.

Loggerheads declined an estimated 30% here in the last five years. While conservation efforts have been increasingly stringent here since the Endangered Species Act of 1973, it's taking a while for the animals to catch up, but there is reason to hope.



Beaches, and nesting habitat are more protected, providing areas for the females to nest.



At the same time that larger turtles were protected from hunts, eggs in the US were protected from poaching. It may take loggerheads 20 to 30 years to reach maturity, so the turtle eggs that benefitted from this protection are just beginning their nesting years, and may nest for 25 or 30 years or more. I tagged this turtle in 1996, and she just nested on Little Cumberland Island last week!



Until the mid-90s, adult turtles were still caught in TEDs. While TEDS have been widely mandated for years, the original design was too small to release larger loggerheads, greens and leatherbacks. This lead to the drowning deaths of huge numbers of reproductive age turtles, which is a tragic loss. Only about 1 in 10,000 eggs reaches adulthood. Coupled with the possible 30 years of nesting effort from just one adult female, the loss of a single female has a tremendous impact. Sally Murphy, in South Carolina, worked tirelessly to change TED regulations to allow even the largest adults to escape shrimp nets unharmed. We're only beginning to reap the benefits of her efforts, and will hopefully see the results on nesting beaches and foraging grounds in the coming years.



Crawls like this are appearing on local beaches, and that's a good thing. It's the result of decades of good science, good regulation and good enforcement. For scuba divers, animal lovers and beach goers, I don't have to explain how magical these animals are. For everyone else, just remember -- leatherbacks can grow to a weight of over 2,000 pounds on a diet of jellyfish alone. Imagine the impact that would have on both sports fisheries (jellies feed primarily on larval fish) and your comfort while swimming in the emerald waters of the Florida Gulf Coast.