Wednesday, September 15, 2010

No - this isn't a photo from our section of beach along the Atlantic coast. Things have been rather slow relative to the sea turtle nests on our beach since many of the nests were destroyed by the waves of a previous hurricane that passed by our coast way, hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic. We only have about 7 nests remaining that we are quite certain will produce hatchlings. Most of the other nests have either been destroyed by the waves (approximately 9) or have already hatched (approximately 16). The stakes and ribbon of one nest that we had been keeping track of were recently pulled by the staff of EAI, Inc. - no evidence of any hatchlings (tracks or other evidence of hatching), but probably just because the "due date" for the nest to hatch (we had calculated that it would have been 60 days of incubation around 9/9/10) has passed, so they may have decided that it either wasn't going to hatch, or it was a "false" nest. It appeared that they had dug up the nest to confirm their theory.

As for the two photos embedded in this posting, our family recently had an opportunity to visit the Florida Oceanographic Society facility in Stuart, FL, to view and "pet" some small "stingrays" in their small sea water tank, and see some of the larger specimens of fish, stingrays, and sharks in their outdoor seawater "lagoon". Of special interest this time was the addition of "Turtwig", a 100 lb. green sea turtle (see photos) to the lagoon. Turtwig was donated in July to the Florida Oceanographic Society from theLoggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, FL. Turtwig arrived at LMC in August of 2009 after some special care. He had been injured by a propeller and has difficulty maneuvering because of some damage to his shell and hind flippers. He will spend the rest of his life at the Florida Oceanographic Society because of his permanent injuries, but he is being "target-trained" (as seen in the photo) to swim toward the trainer when she shows a blue circle in the water. In order to get his "treats" (carrots, lettuce, brocolli, etc.) he must swim toward and touch the "blue circle" at the end of a plastic pipe. This training will ensure that he will also get his needed medications and vitamins every day.


Thursday, September 2, 2010

Storm Destroys Sea Turtle Nests

The empty sea turtle egg shells shown in one of the photos in this blog posting were found on the beach among the left-over sea weed and "garbage" that was blown up on the beach - up to the dune line. We've now lost half as many sea turtle nests on our beaches as we have found hatched. A sad commentary for the sea turtle nesting season this year, but something that is unavoidable. Mother Nature has an impact on all creatures, but sometimes she's quite destructive, as seen in another photo included in this post.
Mother Nature's fury was evidenced during a "drive-by" this week by Hurricane Earl. While the storm's winds never reached our shores, the waves created by the storm hundreds of miles out to sea eventually reached our beaches. In virtually one night, at least 6 nests that we had identified in our records were destroyed. One photo included in this posting shows that the crashing waves came up to the sea oats (dune line) - reaching virtually from the jetty south to the stretch of beach where we stop recording nests. The dune line that you see in the photo used to have anywhere from 20 to 30 yards of sandy beach between the dunes and the ocean's high tide. Now, the high tide line is up to the sea oats! We will probably find many more nests on our beach walk tomorrow that have also been destroyed, but we hold out hope that the remaining storms of the year are not so destructive of our beaches - and sea turtle nests.