July 14, 2014
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| Turtle tracks in the sand |
It’s Loggerhead turtle nesting season again on the Gulf
coast and this morning on my beach walk I saw three different turtle tracks
coming out of the sea up onto the sand. The turtle patrol was at one of the
sites, so I stopped to ask a few questions. They were checking to see if the
turtle had actually laid eggs, or just dug a hole. This spot unfortunately was
empty and I was told that so far there is a higher than normal “false drop”
rate this year. Generally about half of the sites a female digs to lay eggs are
empty, but this year it’s more than that.
I wondered what might be causing this? 2013 was a record
year for nests and hatchlings and authorities believe that it’s because 30
years ago they started a campaign to keep lights off along the shore during
nesting season. When the baby turtles hatch, they go toward the light which
hopefully is the moon shining on the water. If it’s a streetlight, they perish.
So that was good news that 30 years later, they are seeing the fruit of their
labor. Can you believe that it takes 20-30 years for a Loggerhead turtle to be
sexually mature? They can live into their 70s.
So why are they not laying this year? Is there something on
the beach disturbing them? Could it be lightening storms? Effects of the Gulf
oil spill? They also added sand to the beach this year, and I wonder if somehow
that’s disturbing them? Could the rising temperatures of the seas be having a
effect?
In 2012, Tropical Storm Debbie sat over this area for
several days and battered the coast. Most of the turtle nests were destroyed,
but amazingly, after the storm, the turtles returned and laid MORE nests. How
did they know? Are they still connected energetically to their young incubating
in the sand?
Here’s an interesting little fact – the sex of the
hatchlings is determined by how hot the nest is. If it’s cool, then they become
males, and if it’s hot, they become females. I guess you could have boys at the
bottom and girls at the top too.
Last month in Bimini, we were being dragged on lines behind
the boat. As we flew along, Bob and I noticed a loggerhead turtle rising to the
surface right next to us. He just stared at us with a quizzical look like,
“what the heck is that?” We laughed so hard we blew our snorkels off. Humans
whizzing by is not something that a turtle sees everyday, but I hope that these
endangered creatures make a full comeback.
