Hundreds of Freshly Hatched Turtles

[abajan]

In the last remnants of twilight of last Wednesday evening, after spending an enjoyable day at the beach, my friends and I stood practically spellbound as we witnessed an awesome sight, hitherto only seen on National Geographic and Discovery: Hundreds (quite sure that's not an exaggeration) of freshly hatched turtles emerging from some vegetation, rushing to get into the sea.

A couple of them seemed to be having difficulty and we felt compelled to help them on their way but it's against the law here to interfere with turtles, as they're an endangered species (although I doubt we would have been prosecuted for helping them). Not to worry - as far as we could tell, they all made it safely to their destination.

A fitting end to a wonderful picnic.


P.S. My goddaughter's brother took some digital pix of the blessed event and if I get copies, I'll post them. (Of course, photos are a poor substitute for actually being there.)

[O Town]

Amazing! There are tons of nests all around the beaches here and I have always wished I could witness the emerging of baby turtles. You were lucky to have caught it. Please post the pics if you get them, I would love to see them.
What a wonderful surprise huh?

[pojo]

when we stayed at Satellite Beach, FL... our hotel had a turtle message in our rooms.... that would have been neat to see

[JonathanBelles]

I've always wanted to see that, but dont want to infringe on them.

[tropicana]

Were they the Giant Leatherback turtle babies??

-justin-

[O Town]

Good question Justin, there are alot of Loggerheads here, I wasn't sure about in Barbados but I found this.....
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1255240&lastnode_id=0
Says the Hawksbill turtle is the most common.

[artist]

I know in Juno Beach there is the Loggerhead Turtle Rehab (I think that is the correct name)and they have turtle walks during the hatching season for those that want to to join them to see the turtles emerging and making their way to the sea. My future daughter in law did her internship their this summer. You might check in your areas and see if they have anything like that.


Can't wait to see your pics if you are able to get them.

It is actually the Loggerhead Marine Life Center.

[TexasStooge]

In the Las Colinas suburb of Irving, I've been seeing Turtles left and right, mostly near creeks.

[MSRobi911]

Good thing Peach wasn't around.......that's my dog (a Boxer) and she has the best time with tossing turtles up in the air and "playing" with them....they are box turtles...so no harm done. She tried to get one today and he/she was too big to fit in her mouth and she just barked and barked. Poor turtle just sat there with his/her head and limbs in his shell till I finally got her attention off of it.

Mary

PS I have a couple of pics of them making babies, but no pictures of the babies coming out of the sand/river area (which is what is around here).

[Category 5]

Just to think, only 1 or 2 will make it to adulthood probably.

[MSRobi911]

I know that is sad. I have seen several specials on how many preditors there are that eat them when they are still so tiny. I remeber some the footage even showing them getting picked off by birds on the way to the water. That was really sad!

Mary