Lonely Little Loggerhead

We still haven't seen a lot of activity from our last nest, but it is scratching around down there! I am so worried that the cold is getting to them. In the water, sea turtles will wash ashore 'cold stunned' at temps below 45 degrees. I'm not sure what the threshold is for hatchlings in the nest as sand holds the suns heat and keeps them a bit warmer than the air, but it's still been pretty chilly at night. That makes hatchlings sluggish!



This one little guy was hanging out at the sand surface when I arrived the other morning. He wasn't crawling around under the screen though -- there was a front flipper and half of his head above the sand, the rest of him was still buried underneath. After I removed the screen and waited a few minutes, he started to emerge fully. I did give him a little boost on his trip to the water since this was a relocated nest.



He was still a bit sluggish, even after warming in the rising sun. I gave him a quick dunk in the Gulf to see if that perked him up. As soon as he felt the water, he dashed for the sea. He just needed a reminder that that's his real home.

I feel pretty safe calling this hatchling a 'he'. We didn't measure the temperature of the eggs during development, but it's been pretty chilly since this nest was laid. Lower incubation temperatures yield more male hatchlings, so it's fairly reasonable to believe he's a he.



In addition to the cool temps, this particular nest was well washed in both Gustav and Ike. Frequent washings for several days can increase the humidity, remove or add extra sand (on this nest, it was added), change the incubation temperature and can, if it's washed enough, drown developing embryos or hatchlings in the nest. It's great to see this didn't happen with this nest. We don't know yet what the hatch percentage is, and it's likely to be low, but that's how mother nature works. If we'd left it in place, about 50 feet south of it's current location, it would have eroded out about three days after it was laid in the first of our tropical weather this year.

If you look in the above nest photo, you can see how much sand we had to dig out to get the nest back to it's natural depth. We had to do this three separate times -- after Gustav, after Ike and after a strange low pressure system about two weeks ago. Now I do know why I always have sand in my ears, between my toes and in my belly button. I'm sure going to miss this life!

Little Loggerheads at Perdido

At sunrise today, it was time to assess PK7201, a loggerhead nest that has been hatching over the last several days. We had to count eggshells, live hatchlings and embryos that didn't hatch, for one reason or another. There were three stragglers in the nest, ready to greet the world.



Since this was a nest we relocated about 100 feet north of where it was laid, we gave the turtles a lift to the approximate site of the original nest (though the area was reclaimed by the sea about 5 weeks ago... talk about erosion!), and set them out for their first swim.



Two of the three seemed to stick together...



one crawled in circles because it had sand in it's eyes!



Eventually, they all greeted the huge sea (which came complete with it's own shadow),



and took their first swim. How overwhelming that must be for a one ounce turtle-ette!

Loco Boomerang the Loggerhead... YYN 568

Loco the loggerhead has earned a new name -- Boomerang -- since he keeps swimming back to the beach.



The little TED turtle has been taken even farther offshore, ten miles south of Pensacola Pass. Hopefully, he'll learn to feed and grow on his own there. If not, we'll likely take him for continued training at the Galveston NMFS lab.



Amanda and her colleagues at the Gulfarium worked hard to keep their distance from the turtle and help him adjust to life without humans. They fed him live food, while trying to stay out of sight.



We each took a turn saying goodbye, again. Sally looked happy to see him go!



Even the Coast Guard crew, lead by Petty Officer Donovan, each took a turn with Loco Boomerang. He seemed to behave much better for them -- I wonder why?



If Loco/Boomerang is a female, we do hope to see her in 20 years as a nesting adult... Otherwise, I hope the turtle grows large and strong out there on the deep sea currents.

Strange Eggs

I've been working with nesting sea turtles for about 15 years, and I must say this is the strangest nest I've ever seen. I really wish I'd seen the nesting adult -- she may have an injury or illness that lead to these unusual eggs. The smaller, "spacer", eggs in here aren't so unusual, but they're not very common in a loggerhead nest.



This one didn't have a shell or a yolk. Just plain odd. It was just an opaque white jelly with sand on it.



I've been calling this the "Snowman". Can you see why?



This one reminds me of the symbol for infinity.



What would you call this one?



A ghost crab had invaded the nest by the time Cinnamon located it on the morning of July 24 (this is nest SR7241). S/he'd left behind this sliced egg that wasn't placed in the relocated nest as it may lead to mold and mildew growth in addition to attracting ants and other predators.



I hope the nest will do well it's new location.



Isn't the dune I moved it to just gorgeous?

Two Endangered Species, Just Hanging Out

Ok, so technically, loggerheads are still threatened, but there is current petition working it's way through the official channels to change their status to endangered. That's not a good thing, and a result of a steady decline...



I had to assess three sea turtle nests over the last day or so, and there were stragglers in each nest which yolk sacs still attached. Until they absorb all their yolk and the remnants drop off, they'll live in a cooler. They can't swim away from predators very well if they still have to drag their yolk sac through the water... It's a little like a baby's umbilical cord, except this is a reptile, not a mammal.



I keep each nest in a separate cooler in case of bacterial growth or other contamination, but I had to take advantage of the unique opportunity to get a photo of a Kemp's (Lepidochelys kempi) next to a loggerhead (Caretta caretta). What differences are evident to you?



You can see an egg in this image as well. The Kemp's ridley nest seemed to have viable eggs, even 96 hours after the first hatchling emerged. Common convention is to assess a hatched nest after 72 to 96 hours with the assumption that they are finished hatching. I didn't want to take a chance on this critically endangered species though by opening eggs that still looked viable. Kemp's are not supposed to nest here, and it may be a little cool for them. Maybe that, combined with all the rain over Blue Angels weekend, has slowed down some of the hatching. Maybe the shallower eggs, incubating in warmer temperatures, hatched first. It's so hard to know what we don't yet know about sea turtles -- it's a new science, and we change our management behaviors as we learn more about them.



With such low hatchling survival, I don't want to be responsible for the loss of a single animal. The eggs looks a little gray, but they've been about 10 inches under the sand for two months, so that's to be expected!



See that dark little belly? Typical Kemp's... Isn't s/he adorable?

36 Nests....

Cathy Holmes called early this morning with her third nest this season... That makes 36 -- three times last years total, and we're still counting.



This short and lovely loggerhead crawl pointed us towards the eggs.



The eggs were a little close to the surf, but we were advised to leave them in place as we've moved a lot of nests this season. It's a hard choice to make, but we have to maintain a balance. Sea turtles, and their eggs, play important roles in the ecosystem that we don't completely understand yet.



As long as the tropical weather stays away, the little loggerheads should appear in about two months. Can't wait to see the little guys!

Sea Turtle Swims to Freedom

The day started out very well today... Monica and I drove to the Gulfarium in Destin to pick up YYN 568, aka "Loco." It was time to release s/him to the wild after about three weeks of care and training.



Amanda and the folks in Destin taught our little TED research escapee how to feed well enough to survive in the wild. Captain Dave and Jeremy Brown took us to sea aboard the Y Knot. These two gentlemen from Blue Water Adventures rescued an entangled Kemp's ridley a few weeks ago.



You can see they have an affinity for this little loggerhead, even though Loco is trying to swim through the air.



S/he acted the same way with Monica. Clearly, this turtle was ready to return to the Gulf of Mexico. Hope we'll see him or her represented in the nesting population in about 20 more years!



Amanda took many of the photos with my camera today while I returned Loco the the sea.



It was so hard to see Loco leave, but s/he was quite at home, dashing instantly for the sea floor. I should have some good pictures from Jeremy (who's in the water) in a day or so... Thanks, Mark, for letting us take the day to return this animal to it's natural home!