Turtle Release At National Seashore

I drove down on Saturday to see the first release for 2016.  It was awesome.  The little turtles are so cute.  I hope that a lot of them survive.  This was the first release this year and it was from Clutch 2 and it had 70 babies in it.  As you have seen in my previous blogs the stroll up and down the beaches for months looking for nests that turtles have laid their eggs in.  The turtles come up and bury them in the sand and then go back out to the sea.  That is the only time that the female sea turtles come to shore.  The males never come back.  Since they are an endangered specie the volunteers find them and the Rangers gather them up to keep them safe until they are ready to go out to sea.  They release them at 6:45 in the morning when the public is allowed to watch. There are other releases that are not for public viewing.  There is a net over the area where the Dr puts them on the sand to run.  She put them out there one at a time.  When they get out past the net then there are people with flags and owls on sticks waving them in the air so that the birds don't swoop down for breakfast.  Once they make it to the water they are on their own and hopefully a few will survive.  They go to a weedy area to hide for a few years until they are big enough to go out into the open water.

This little boy reminded me of James when he was little - I am sure he would have wore his ninja turtle shorts too.