Leatherback Turtle nest 6/8/2008

[ASH]

If you want to walk the beaches at night with flashlights, contact me and I will get red filters to you. I have plenty of them that I get from the Turtlewatch folks. Turtles cannot see the color red. I know lots of people like to go looking for ghost crabs and whatever else crawls around in the surf at night. I am cool with it as long as it doesn't interfere with the turtles.
I also have access to coloring books for children, pamphlets explaining the nesting season, stickers as reminders about lights. Lots of stuff. Please don't hesitate to contact me or anyone on the turtlewatch for this information.
Education is absolutely the key to success with the turtles.

 

[MaryAnne]

When can we expect the eggs to hatch? I'll be there the second week of Sept.

Gestation period is usually close to 60 days so you will be there a little early.

Any update on the eggs?

 

[jensieblue]

Hello, Ash,,,

My family comes down a couple times a year and the adults are pretty much past the night walks on the beach stage..But the younger generations of our group likely would go on the beach at night. Not living there, I dopn't know how seasonal the nesting time is. Might it be possible to have the rental agencies, we always do Rivard, let us know what we need to know to keep the nests safe. Maybe they could even put the red filters in the rental homes when we should be using the filters on the beach? I don't know what would be the simpliest but I insist that my family respect the beach and do what they need. Any thoughts?

 

[ASH]

It will probably be the first week of October before the nest pops......if it does at all. Gustav washed most of the remaining nests and while we have our fingers crossed, the reality is that many turtle eggs likely drown or got washed out all together. The four miles my wife and I walk had close to 10 nests that there is only one original nest left.
I understand the night Gustav was washing out nests, some brave souls were scooping eggs out of the surf and they got replanted to a higher spot, but there chances for success are not high.
Not to be gloom and doom, Walton County went from 20 nests all last year to 37 nests this year. I don't have the numbers, but we could have put more little turtles back out to sea this year than we did last year.

Thanks to everyone asking questions. Don't be shy. The question you ask may be the one someone else lurking really wanted to ask.

 

[beachma]

Thanks for the update! Is this the nest located in the vicinity of Seagrove Villas? Last October my husband and I were privileged to witness a turtle hatching from a nest there. We were told that it was a Leatherback nest...it was huge! We had returned from a wonderfull dinner at D&K's and were heading down to the beach for some stargazing, when from our balcony we watched a group of people hurry down the beach walk with red flashlights...it was a little eerie at first, but when it dawned on us what was happening, we went down and watched as 8 or so little baby turtles struggled to the surface of the sand, then made the journey down to the water's edge! It was quite a thrill for us...especially after 18 years of vacationing in the area and walking past many, many nests on the beach over those years! It was quite remarkable to witness how they struggled just to cross the tire tracks to get down to the water and gave us a whole new appreciation of why it's so important not to leave "crap" on the beach!!!! Hopefully the nest survived...I'll be checking for updates.

 

[ASH]

The Leatherback nest this year was within about 100 yards of the nest from last year. Storms have wiped out the stakes that were marking the nest location and so it is no longer protected from TDC trucks and people digging holes. The Leatherback does dig quite a deep hole and that helps its chances, but hopes are not as high as they could be for that nest if it could have been left in its natural state.
It is nature and sometimes things don't work out how we might envision they should.