Sea Turtle Info

Hoping to. We'll be there hanging out and watching.
The stretch my wife and I have has us keeping an eye on three nests so far.

And I hadda post another quick one to get me off that last number of posts of 666.

Nests #18 and #19 just happened as well. This year should easily have more nests than last year, that only had 20.

The Today Show - Sea Turle Segment

Tomorrow morning the Today show is going to have a segment on the Today show! Ironically, there is also suppose to be a segment about the dangers of digging on the beach. Two different segments -- just happening on the same day!

http://www.waltonsun.com/news/many_1687___article.html/realize_sunning.html

As we spend our days off sunning on the beaches, many of us do not realize that we are sharing the habitat of many creatures great and small. The beach is alive with crabs, shells, birds and something you might not notice with an untrained eye… sea turtle nests.
Each year from May through October there are four species of Florida sea turtles that nest locally in Walton County – Loggerhead, Green, Leatherback and Kemp’s ridley. All of them are either threatened or endangered.
Females nest every two to three years, laying several nests on sandy beaches. After digging a hole and depositing about 80–120 eggs, the females fill in the hole with sand and camouflage the nest before returning to the gulf.
With each season, the turtles face an uphill battle in their attempt to nest. With many obstacles such as human debris (chairs, tents, garbage) and holes dug in the sand, it is increasingly difficult for the turtles to reach a desirable nesting area. They often get confused when bumping into obstacles as they plow through the sand to reach beyond the high tide line.
The turtles have a bit of help from local advocate groups across the state. In Walton County, local turtle watch organization; South Walton Turtle Watch has more than 40 volunteers who comb the beach each morning looking for new turtle nests.
The volunteers locate nests, barricade and monitor until the hatchlings emerge. The volunteers work seven days a week from May through October.
If you would like to volunteer, contact Sharon Maxwell at (850) 897-5228. For more information about our local sea turtles visit: www.seaturtlewatch.com
It is illegal to harm, harass or kill any sea turtles, their eggs, or hatchlings. If you find hatchlings wandering in a road, parking lot, or in a direction other than toward the water, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at (888) 404-FWCC or *FWC from your mobile phone.

Things you can
do to help
nesting turtles



Turn off the lights!

Keep beachfront lights off throughout the night from May to October as they can confuse sea turtles during the mating season. Suggested alternatives to decrease artificial lighting include use of motion sensors for safety, dark window tinting and curtains to cover inside light, and yellow incandescent light bulbs (bug lights). Studies have also shown that light from low pressure sodium vapor sources don’t attract turtles as much as high pressure sodium lights. Avoid fluorescent, mercury vapor, metal halide, and white incandescent lighting.

For information about low pressure sodium lighting contact Phoenix products at (414) 973-3300 or www.phoenixproducts.com
If you use a flashlight on the beach after dark, use a turtle safe sticker to diffuse the bright bulb light. For more information on how to get a sticker contact; Azalace Artworks (850) 855-9641 email: azalace@earthlink.com


If you see turtle hatchlings

Allow hatchings to crawl to the water on their own. Scientists believe the imprinting helps the hatchlings remember where they came from, so they can return and lay their own nests 20 to 30 years later.

Leave hatchling sea turtles in their nest; they will exit the nest when they are ready. If hatchlings are removed from the nest before they are ready, they are less likely to survive.


If you find a nesting turtle

Stay behind her at a distance so that she can not see you.

Keep your distance, remain quiet, and keep all lights off (flashlights, flash photography and video equipment). Noise and lights can cause the turtle to return to the Gulf without laying her eggs. Keep hands and other objects off and away from the turtle. After nesting, she may appear slow and hesitant. Touching, prodding, shining lights, or causing commotion may frighten her, disorient her, and cause her to spend less time covering and camouflaging her nest.

Nests #34 and #35, if I remember correctly what the turtle walker told me, have been found at Bella Vita and yesterday at the foot of the walkover at White Cliffs.

"Confused sea turtles march into restaurant"

Turtle soup anyone?

" ROME (Reuters) - About 60 newly hatched sea turtles lost their way during their ritual passage to the sea and marched into an Italian restaurant instead, a conservation worker said on Monday.

The baby turtles -- which ended up under the tables of startled diners at the beachside restaurant -- were probably thrown off track and lured by the eatery's bright lights, said Antonio Colucci, who was called to help rescue the group.

"They saw the artificial lights and took the wrong route," said Colucci, who works on a turtle monitoring project for the conservation group WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature).".......
Click here for rest of story.

Seriously, bright lights are an issue in my book for more than just the turtle aspect (I like to see stars as well as turtles). Yet on the few occasions that I've walked the beach at night, I noticed the bright sodium vapor street lights on Blue Mountain Road pouring down on an otherwise dark situation. Do we really need all those street lights on Blue Mountain Road (as an example)?

It seems that Chelco and the turtle advocates should be working together to minimize or totally eliminate the street lighting on side streets near the beach. At a minimum, a can of black spray paint can do wonders for blocking southward bound light beams!

Just a reminder, in an effort to maintain thread consistency, turn off those "all night" outside lights during nesting season. Pulling your curtains / closing blinds wouldn't hurt either.

Stumbled across a turtle launching tonight, quite unexpectedly, on Seacrest Beach. What an awesome sight!

The first turtle out of the cooler made a straight bee-line to the beach and was the first in the water. The kids nick-named him 'Phelps'.

Thanks to the 'blue-gloved' people in charge for caring for these little guys! Nights like these remind us why we love SoWal.

Stumbled across a turtle launching tonight, quite unexpectedly, on Seacrest Beach. What an awesome sight!

The first turtle out of the cooler made a straight bee-line to the beach and was the first in the water. The kids nick-named him 'Phelps'.

Thanks to the 'blue-gloved' people in charge for caring for these little guys! Nights like these remind us why we love SoWal.

I would so love to see this. Maybe someday.

Now if we can just keep the nests from getting a bad case of beach erosion for the next couple days. There are several nests that are going to go any time being watched multiple times per day. Fay could really mess things up after waiting for 60 days!

Now if we can just keep the nests from getting a bad case of beach erosion for the next couple days. There are several nests that are going to go any time being watched multiple times per day. Fay could really mess things up after waiting for 60 days!

It will be interesting to see the difference in beach nest survival from the storm between the west end of the beach versus the area along 30-A.

Now if we can just keep the nests from getting a bad case of beach erosion for the next couple days. There are several nests that are going to go any time being watched multiple times per day. Fay could really mess things up after waiting for 60 days!

While I agree that this would be a tragedy part of me also understands that mother nature is making the choice here and if something bad happens it is not by a human hand.

Alright, someone please fill me it. I noticed on my walk the other day that there are three new nest on the recreated dune or slope in front of Adagio. Were the two nests in front of Bella Vita and White Cliffs moved by the turtle watchers to these locations or did we really have three new nests this close together, which to me, seems highly unlikely.

Not new nests. I heard that there were a few brave souls on the beach the night Gustav tore up the beach scooping eggs out of the surf and they planted them higher up on the slope.
Since then, the one furthest West popped. As a matter of fact, my Wife and I were walking the beach that very night (checking the moved nests) and came across the little turtle tracks and found 5 people from Georgia who got to witness the nest pop.
The nest had popped before dark and they had several short videos they were kind enough to forward to me that I am working with Sharon to get on the Turtlewatch website.
I got a couple photo's too that I will see if I can get them on this thread.
The two remaining moved nests (salvaged) are weeks from their hatch dates.

Here is the best of the four pictures. I posted them in the gallery under nature and environment if you want to see the others. We have been blessed. It is a Loggerhead.

Here is the best of the four pictures. I posted them in the gallery under nature and environment if you want to see the others. We have been blessed. It is a Loggerhead.

OMG! How awesome! How lucky ya'll were to witness this!

Interested in helping the turtles? Fill in the info and let them know how you feel. http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/protectESA?rk=b7_LUL1qH-lxE

Last night (Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008) the turtle nest at Sugar Dunes hatched. It was SoWal working together that saved some and alerted Turtle Watch people. Unusually, around 4:30 p.m. some turtles started their trek to the Gulf. It was too hot and two died. A homeowner at SugarDunes tried to call Sharon and could not reach her. She talked to another neighbor who called a SoWaller who then contacted a former SoWal Turtle Watch person who had moved to Atlanta. The Atlanta contact had numbers for Turtle Watch in the area. Turtle Watch showed up on the scene by 5 p.m. with a cooler and was able to save 6 who left the nest during the heat of the afternoon. The hatched turtles chilled out under careful watch until they could be released later under a beautiful moon and calm Gulf. The turtles were released about 8:30 p.m. (not sure about time as didn't want to open phone and have light distract). Then, about 30 minutes later, 26-30 of the little turtles popped out of their nest and safely made their way to the Gulf.

A big thanks should also be given to the residents at SugarDunes. In response to this hatching emergency, they also turned off ALL the lights at their complex for the night. These were some of the same people during Hurricane Ivan that rescued a nest in their area.

Great story DL

And thank you Sugar Dunes!!

Some time ago, I read a story in the Seaside newspaper about a young boy, preschool age, I believe, who sunk down into a large hole on the beach. As far as I can remember, and I may not be getting this exactly right, the hole was covered with sand but not completely filled. When the youngster sunk down in it, he was immediately covered and, by God's good grace, the parents somehow found him. (I wish I knew which day and week I saw this article, but it's been awhile ago.)
Anyway, I say all that to point out that not only turtles are endangered by these large holes left on the beaches...this child almost died!

I have posted before that holes on the beach kill somewhere around 12 people per year. Mostly from holes being sttep and deep, someone is in the bottom and the hole sloughs in suffocating the victim. See how fast you can dig down a foot and keep the bottom of the hole clean in the evnet you needed to find someone's face and give them room to be able to breathe and you begin to understand how they suffocate. Now imagine the hole being three or four feet deep.
The other way injuries occur is joggers or walkers either not watching for a split second or moving at night and you can imagine broken legs and arms pretty quick.
The worst hole that makes me the most angry is the one about a foot and a half across, about as deep, and straight sides because it was dug in the wet sand right where people are always walking. You have to be right on top of those holes before you see them. Who dug this hole and what were they thinking?????

My favorite time of the day is late afternoon just before sunset when most people are off the beach. It feels like it used to before all the development went in. During this time I am constantly filling in holes where the tourists have just abandoned them. For me, it's just common sense to fill in a hole before dark. Maybe when one of these people breaks a bone falling in a hole at night they'll get it. Until then I'll keep filling in and reminding the kids I see that the turtles come in at night and to please help keep them safe by filling in their holes before they leave each day. Sure wish I was there now.