A Few Quotes
from “The Beach House”
( written by Mary Alice Monroe)
The
temperature of the sand during incubation plays a role in determining
the sex
of the hatchlings. Cool sand produces
males; while hotter sand
brings
females.
Sea
turtles travel long distances as they migrate between their feeding
grounds
and nesting beaches. Although there are
many theories, no one
is
certain how the turtles navigate their way.
“Turtle Walks”
These started decades ago as wildlife officials and
volunteers combed the beaches
to mark nests and tagged turtles to keep track of their
numbers. Federal and State
laws protecting the species allow beach viewers to watch
only the threatened
“loggerhead turtle” laying her eggs.
Hatching
time approaches. Inside the nest, the
baby turtle picks away
at its
shell with an egg tooth. The hatchling
will remain underground
for
several days to absorb every bit of the important yolk sac for the
energy to
survive. It also needs to allow its
curved shell to straighten.
The
hatchlings remain quiet during the heat of the day, but at night,
they
scrape with their flippers, plowing through broken shells and
compact
sand, working as a team. This causes the
floor of the nest
to slowly
rise to the surface.
David Porter, a volunteer from the Marine Life Centre (Juno Beach, Florida)
has a walkie-talkie hooked to his shorts so he can keep in
contact with the
dozen volunteers spread out over a mile on the beach. Armed with radios,
night-vision scopes and bug spray, the volunteers quickly
scout the beach
for signs of a turtle emerging from the water. Within the first two hours,
volunteers spot 2 loggerheads , but both crawled back to the
ocean before
digging a hole or laying eggs. The long night of waiting requires patience.
About 10:30 pm the volunteers heard a commotion on their
radios.
A third turtle was spotted and started digging her nest ~ a
sure sign she
will stay for as long as two hours or longer. Nearly three hours later,
the turtle makes a slow turn toward the ocean.
The
hatchlings (about 3 inches long) are drawn to the brightest light.
In nature, this is the white light of the
moon or stars over the ocean.
Artificial lighting can confuse the hatchlings and lead them to death
in
tangles of beach grass or on busy streets.
The
minutes spent dashing from the nest to the sea are very
dangerous
in a turtle's life. This is the time for
predators to
attack the
hatchlings. If and when the hatchlings
reach the ocean
and get
their first taste of the sea, instinct kicks in. The crawling
motion is
replaced with power strokes by front flippers.
The turtle
will go nonstop for twenty-four hours in what's called
a
“swimming frenzy” to reach the Gulf Stream. Once there, it will
hide and
feed in the relative safety of enormous floats of sargassum
weeds and
flotsam.
The
hatchlings are carried by the North Atlantic
system of gyres
to the
islands off West Africa where the
now-dinner-plate-sized
loggerheads may remain for a decade or more. When seen again
along the
eastern seaboard, the juveniles have grown considerably
in weight
and size.
Hatchlings
dine on small snails, microplankton and invertebrates.
After they
reach adulthood, their powerful jaws can crush heavy-
shelled
crustaceans and creatures that reside in reefs and rocks.
Jelllyfish...are like candy treats!
“Turtle Friendly”
Rules to Follow at the Beach
LIGHTS OUT! Turn off
the lights at dusk that are visible from the beach!
Close blinds and drapes on beach-facing-windows. Use motion
sensor
security lights instead of outdoor porch lights.
STAY AWAY FROM NESTS!
Do not touch or disturb turtle nest markings.
Walking on the nest can crush the eggs below. Please keeps pets on a
leash away from the nest.
DON'T PICK UP THE HATCHLINGS! Crawling to the surf on their own
helps them to orient when they enter the sea. When the female is mature
in twenty years, they will return to nest.
FILL IN THE HOLES! Baby
turtles can navigate a footprint, but large
moats around sand castles, etc. can trap them Adult seas turtles can be
trapped as well.
QUITELY OBSERVE A NESTING TURTLE from a distance. If the
mother turtle is disturbed by lights or people, she may abandon
her
effort to nest. Stay
behind the turtle so that she can't see you and
do not try to touch her.
NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY!
Both the adult turtle and the
hatchling can be disoriented by the bright light. It may be tempting,
but please avoid flashes from cameras or the white light
of flashlights.
REMOVE
BEACH AND BOAT
LITTER! Balloons, plastic bags and
other non-degradable pollutants cause the deaths of turtles
who try to
eat them.
THANK YOU!
Mary Alice Monroe
dedicated this book
to her 13 fellow
members of the...
Isle of
Palms/Sullivan's Island Turtle team
and to all Turtle Volunteers here and
elsewhere
who walk the
beaches every morning
to help our beloved loggerheads.
........................................
Consider the Turtle
Consider the
turtle! Perchance you have worried , despaired of the world,
meditated the end of
life...and all things seem rushing to destruction, but
nature has steadily
and serenely advanced with the turtle's pace.
The young turtle
spends its infancy within its shell. It
gets experience
and learns the way of
the world through that wall. While it rests warily
on the edge of its
hole, rash schemes are undertaken by men and fail.
French empires rise or
fall, but the turtle is developed only so fast..
What's a summer?
Time for a turtle's
egg to hatch. So is the turtle
developed, fitted to
endure for he outlives
twenty French dynasties. One turtle
knows
several
Napoleans. They have no worries, no
cares, yet...has not
the great world
existed for them as much as for you?
Henry David
Thoreau
Journal ~ August
28, 1856,
Believe I shall reread this fantastic and inspiring, novel,
The Beach House,
about Caretta Rutledge who heads back to the scenic
Lowcountry
of her childhood summers (just as her life is spinning out
of control).
Before long, the rhythms of the island open her heart in
wonderful
ways as she repairs the family beach house, becomes a bona
fide
“turtle lady” and renews old acquaintances long thought
lost.
Merle Baird-Kerr …
written September 4, 2012
Comments
welcome...scroll down...may sign in as “anonymous”
or
e-mail...inezkate@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment