What a lucky girl I was. Just down from our 'spot' on the beach, a Loggerhead turtle nest hatched. Well, I actually missed the hatching, by a half an hour on Sunday night. But the lucky thing is that three days after the nest hatches, the "Turtle Squad" digs up the nest to make sure there are no stragglers left in there that can't get out. Guess what? I happened to be on the beach during the dig and....well, watch the video! It's less than a minute. There was two stragglers left in the nest! The video shows them walking down to the ocean.
Here is another video, but is was super humid that night, so my camera began fogging up. You might have to make it full screen to see it better. Just hit "escape" to make the video go away and return to the blog. This one is getting closer to the ocean.
And one more...again, make it full screen. The second turtle on his way to the ocean.
I guess the actual hatching was incredible as there were over 100 baby turtles, being described as ants coming out of the ground. Cool. Sorry I missed it! However, I am lucky I at least got to see two of them. There was actually a third, but he was dead :( A sad fact...for every 100 eggs hatched, only one sea turtle will make it to maturity. Couple this with the massive sea turtle hunting and now wonder they are endangered!
This is how it goes...
The "Turtle Patrol" rides four wheelers on the beach every morning looking for evidence of a new nest. They scan as they ride looking for body drag and flipper marks from the momma coming up on shore to lay her eggs. When they see this evidence, they block off the nest with landscape edging and put a sign up showing the date that the nest was found along with a warning of a $10,000 fine if you mess with the nest. About 54 days after the nest was discovered, they hatch. Starting on this date, one member of the squad sets up chairs for the night and sits and watches the nest all night for as many days as necessary until the nest hatches. Three days later, they dig up the nest looking for turtles that couldn't find their way out. Then they tear the whole thing down. When the nest hatches, the baby sea turtles make it to the ocean by following the light of the moon, therefore, when your house on the island is by a nest, you are forbidden to leave your outside lights on so as not to confuse the baby turtles when they hatch.
