if you know me, you know my love for seaturtles and how many nights of my summer vacations were spent walking up and down the beach looking for seaturtles laying their eggs. for all those 4 am walks, i've only ever seen 1 seaturtle lay her eggs, but i have seen thousands of tracks and helped transfer thousands of eggs.
most beaches have loggerhead patrols that replant eggs to keep them from getting washed away by high tides and oversee their hatchings to keep away crabs and raccoons. it took many years to realize that the depth the eggs were replanted determined the gender of the hatchling--hot sand means boys...this was only realized after generations were baby turtles were destined to be single for the rest of their lives.
(i also had this bumper sticker on my car for many years!)other fun facts:
mama turtles come back to lay their eggs at the same beach they hatched from, and before that, they spend 20 year swimming a path of currents through the ocean. that is why so little is known about them.
FILP
archie carr: i read his book when i was about 12 and going through my hardcore i-want-to-be-a-marine-biologist phase.
pictures of him researching:
and then i found these of him attaching weather balloons to seaturtles. such beautiful pictures!
if you want to help save the seaturtles, visit:
sierra club petition
