After relocating two nests this morning we got a call about a sea turtle in the surf near Camp Creek Lake, we were able to get her out of the water and she was alive but weak, she had some oil on her, and a gauze sample of this was taken. She is now at Gulf World, and I will check on her in a couple of days.
Great news out of the nests we caged and sent to the East Coast. We sent 270 hatchlings out of 3 nests and only 1, yes, only 1 died on the way. So thanks so much team. Hope they come back to our white sandy beaches.
On June 2, 2010 Kelly found a Loggerhead Sea Turtle nest in Walton County. This nest was to close to the high tide line and was moved straight back. Because of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico the nests were to be relocated into coolers and transported to the East Coast of Florida. When this nest was dug into to be relocated it was found that some eggs were already piping. Piping is when the sea turtle hatchlings brake open the egg. The nest was quickly reburied and a cage put over it to catch the hatchlings so they would not hatch and go into the Gulf of Mexico. Two days later an indentation appeared in the nest and that night volunteers Sherry and Anthony watched the nest. About 9 p.m. the hatchlings started to appear. They wanted to go to the water. The hatchlings, 91 in all were gathered up and up into two separate coolers and kept overnight. Early the next morning Bob Reddick and his Fed Ex truck were waiting to take the hatchlings to the East Coast to be released into the Atlantic. With great care the coolers were strapped in for their ride to meet Bob. The coolers were labeled and the volunteers present introduced Bob to our Hatchlings. The hatchlings in the coolers were very happy to be going to the water. Bob took his time and got the coolers securely into the truck and away the hatchlings went with the words “Come back and nest here in Walton County.
On May 08,2010 An endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle was seen by a Walton County Life Guard nesting in the Dune Allan area. We were called and marked this nest. At this time the Deep Water Horizon Oil disaster was ongoing. We marked the nest according to our sea turtle permit. As this oil disaster continued it was decided that all sea turtle nests on the Gulf Coast be dug up and hatched in coolers at the Kennedy Space Center. So at day 49 the eggs were dug up by a group of trained people and moved to Kennedy. This was the very first nest on the Gulf Coast moved. The eggs hatched and out of 67 eggs, 57 hatchlings came out. These endangered sea turtle hatchlings were released into the Atlantic Ocean. As the summer goes on we will continue to relocate our nests to this area. We are having a very big part in protecting the endangered sea turtles.
January 2010 was extremely cold in N.W. Florida. St. Joe’s Bay, near Port St. Joe, is a shallow Bay and with 14 nights well below freezing the bay’s water became very cold. The bay is a winter home to many sea turtles because of it’s many grasses. Green are the most dominate sea turtle in the bay. Sea turtles, being reptiles, need warm water so with the very cold water we had over 1800 sea turtles strand. These sea turtles, cold stunned ,were picked up and taken to Sea World in Panama City Beach, warmed up, checked out, and then released when there were warm. South Walton Turtle Watch was proud to take part in this great adventure. We are sorry to say over 600 of these sea turtles died but the rest lived and hopefully will come back to nest on our beaches. We hope to see these sea turtles back on our beaches as nesting adults.
About 6:15 am, I was headed to mark nest 32 when I saw a man looking at something in the water. I saw flippers and very close to the shore. I ran over expecting to find the mama sea turtle who just laid her nest. It was a dolphin. He still had some energy and was trying to ride waves into shore, but also turn and swim out. He was injured and being tossed by the waves. He made a dolphin sound. Blood came from his mouth. I called Sharon and ran to Bill and Sharon Higgins house. Called a few other SWTW people. Wayne came down and the tourist, Bill, and Wayne took the dolphin out from the wave break to keep him calmer, trying to keep his blow hole clear.
Gulf World came about one and a half hour after the initial call to Sharon. We were on the beach until 9am. They confirmed the death and took samples, told us it was a spotted adult male.
Today was a beautiful day to release two loggerhead sea turtles. One of them Joe Burton picked up alive on May 5, 2009 and the other Gulf World thought was ours but I could find no record of it. They both were very young Loggerheads, about 3 years old and both had had pneumonia and rehabbed at Gulf World in Panama City. We took them out this morning about 9 and were back by 10. We went out 4 miles looking for the Sargissam Weed to put them in but finding none we just let them go. I do hope they find enough to eat, now that they are well. Notice how the young Loggerheads have ridges on their backs that go away as they get bigger, hopefully they will come back to Walton County to nest in 20 years.
Larger images can be seen in the Scrapbook Gallery.