Turtle Track Art

This Loggerhead Mama drew a TURTLE in the sand!

STSOS

Think about that.
It stands for *Sea Turtles in Distress*. Although sea turtles are only... "threatened" or "Endangered"

...This is SERIOUS! It is a terrible thing to witness the losses.
Many of the losses are caused by man, by humankind, by accident or on purpose.
Some of the ways we lose turtles are;
.boating accidents
.fishing
.shrimping
.garbage that they swallow, for instance plastic bags that when floating look like jellyfish.
.bright lights drawing babies away from the beach
Can you name more?
How can we help?

Olive Ridley RUN!

And..they're OFF!

Costa Rica Sea Turtle Farm

You might call it a farm, or a reserve or preserve. This is the fenced in area where hundreds of sea turtle "clutches" have been relocated (buried like Mama Turtle did) for their protection. In each row there are many nests which are circled with mesh. Once a nest begins to "boil" the mesh is removed and a wooden frame is set around the nest. All of the hatching baby sea turtles will now make it to the sea. This is a GOOD thing!

Mother Davis with Olive Ridley Hatchling

Olive Ridley Hatchlings in Costa Rica

While vacationing in Costa Rica we were lucky to meet some researchers from the U.S. who invited us to help release hundreds of "Olive Ridley" sea turtles. In this area poachers still capture nesting turtles and take all the eggs to eat or sell so these young people would patrol at night and immediately move the nests. On this afternoon several nests were hatching in an enclosed area where all the nests were moved for safe keeping. As each nest hatched the researchers put the hatchlings in buckets to be carried closer to the sea. There was no problem releasing the hatchlings in daylight for there were no seagulls or other predators on land.

Leatherback Sea Turtle Tracks

Mike and Katie Wiley from Texas discovered these amazing tracks on a remote beach on Anagada in the British Virgin Islands. They sent us to verify that they were actually made by a sea turtle. The tracks were made by a HUGE Leatherback Sea Turtle. Flipper tip to flipper tip measured 6 feet wide! I dream of someday seeing a turtle this large!