Turtle Talk and Walk

By Diane C. Hodill

CLEARWATER BEACH -

It's been a good year for turtles on Pinellas County beaches and for the global community of conservation-minded people who attended "Nesting Sea Turtles & Their Survival," a talk and  beach walk led by Joe Malo, marine educator from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA)   last week  at the Sandpearl Resort. 

As of July 23,  126 nests have been found and 11 nests have already hatched. Each nest holds between 88 and 112 eggs, said Kevin Burke, a seven year volunteer at the CMA.

Presented by the Friends of Pinellas Master Naturalists (FPMN) as community outreach, it was the third year this event was held.  The environmental organization works with area hotels, said Pat Edmond, who heads the group. "By educating their guests and residents about turning off lights and the nesting habits, it lessens their impact on the beach," Edmond said. "Most of our hotels are very conscientious about their responsibility to the environment."

 A crowd gathered on the beach to learn more about loggerhead turtles.  "These 200 to 400 pounders have ranged the seas for hundreds of millions of years," Malo said. "They are instinct driven to lay their eggs here." Malo said loggerheads have a magnetic property in their skulls. "We think they can read magnetic lines all over the planet that might help guide them around the oceans. "If a hatchling was born at this spot, we don't think that they'll come exactly here to nest, but somewhere in these couple of counties."

Malo said that when concerns arouse that the metal cages placed on the staked off nests could interfere with the development of the hatchlings - the small cages were changed to all plastic. These small cages are designed to keep the hatchlings in, Malo said, not keep other animals out. "Because a lot of ours, around here," he said, "are going to go the wrong way. "

"They've been doing it by themselves for millions of years, way before people. But they go by the light.  A baby turtle sticks its head up at night - it looks around, down, and whatever way is brightest - cause waves sparkle more than sand and dunes - that's what drives them to the ocean, "Malo said. "But if there are artificial lights, they'll come up and see those, often brighter than the waves and they will go the wrong way. So we make sure that we're there. To get them pointed in the right way."

The CMA and more than 200 nesting volunteers help patrol the local beaches and stake out the nests to let people know that they are there. "You won't want someone just wanting some shade on the beach to put up an umbrella in the middle of nest," he said.

Ten days prior to their expected due dates, the plastic enclosure is placed over the nests. CMA volunteers then attend the nests from 10 pm to 2 am until they hatch.  "Sometimes you'll see a small indentation in the center, a clue that it will soon hatch," Malo said.

For a memorable night, watch a turtle nest hatch.  Pick a nest on a familiar stretch of beach and look for a date written on one of the stakes.  That's the day it was found - then add about 60 days.  When you see the enclosure, bring lawn chairs and some patience cause you have a one in five chance to see it hatch.

"It imprints you," said Emma Mason, member of FPMN.  "No matter how many times you see a nest hatch, it's like the first time.  Like when you see a dolphin."

To find out about a nest near you, got to www.SeeWinter.com. If you see a nesting turtle or an unattended hatching nest - call the CMA at 441-1790 ext. 224 .  To learn more about the Friends of the Pinellas Master Naturalists check out www.pinellasmasternaturalists.org.

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