Wee turtles
End of the summer in North Carolina means the start of hatching season. Despite the low numbers of nests laid this year and the recent hurricane, there is still the opportunity to see some live hatchlings on the beach. The nests are usually excavated in the early evening, some 72 hours after signs of first emergence by hatchlings from the nest. In this case, two of the sea turtle project participants started digging up the nest with less than 20 observers on hand. This number swelled to 50 or more, as more people were attracted by the crowd on the beach. Three live loggerheads were found at the bottom of the nest and allowed to crawl to the ocean, much to the delight of the onlookers. One little girl asked me if it was my job to work with turtles. When I said yes, she said "That is what I want to be when I get older: a sea turtle worker." Clearly, these kinds of experiences do have an impact on people who participate.
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Hi,
I,m shooting a video called "Natural Wonders of the East Coast: Key West to Virginia Beach". When people think of the east coast they usually think of big cities. The object of our video is to promote the wild places that are left along the coast. We filmed some turtles laying eggs in Hobe Sound last month and are now trying to find some hatchlings to film but are not having any luck. We are in St. Augustine right now and moving north up the coast over the next four weeks. If anyone out there has access to turtle hatchlings please contact us so we can video them and show the entire process from eggs to turtle. Thanks.
John Holod
holodjohn@aol.com
Posted by: John Holod | August 12, 2004 10:19 PM