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HomeNewsArchivesCareful Tour Group Thrilled at Sight of Hatching Turtles

Careful Tour Group Thrilled at Sight of Hatching Turtles

July 25, 2007 — Excitement built as a line of cars slowly wove two miles down a rutted road from the entrance of Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge to the beach.
Thirty people, led by Amy Mackay and Claudia Lombard, passed sea grapes, small palm trees and salt flats on their way to the natal beach of leatherback turtles, where babies were about to emerge from their sandy nests.
The refuge is closed to the public through September except for special guided tours led by Mackay, who works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Lombard, assisting Mackay Tuesday evening, is a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Wildlife Law Enforcement Agency.
Mackay has been studying turtle behavior for more than a quarter of a century. She leads the tours for groups such as Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, 4-H, Boys and Girls Club and Crabs Dive Club. Sponsoring this tour was the St. Croix Environmental Association, which has been involved in the program for more than 12 years.
At the beach and out of their cars, members of the tour were led single file — so as not to step on any nests — to a concentration of nests. The mother turtles picked areas of beach with sandy approaches and no coral reefs, making entrances difficult.
Immediately tiny noses could be seen poking out of the sand in numerous staked nests. Wandering around was not permitted because of the seriousness of stepping on a nest.
This group had to be especially careful because almost a third of it was children under age 12. When dolphins were spotted out on the sea, a couple of the youngsters had to be held back from walking over the nests in their enthusiasm.
The leatherbacks wait until the sand cools from the heat of the day before they completely emerge.
The eggs were in a bowl-shaped nest the mothers dug about 60 days ago. The turtles have an egg tooth on their nose to poke their way out of their soft leathery eggshells.
"It is a group effort,” said Carol Cramer-Burke, executive director of SEA, who was also helping on the tour. “They stimulate each other to get through the dense sand."
She went on to describe the natural predators that the babies must avoid, such as ghost crabs and the yellow crowned night heron. There is also a female frigate bird with a tattered wing that regularly patrols the beach for baby leatherbacks.
During the evening, tour participants could see the frigate bird fly overhead, and the night heron was spotted on the beach. The raucous sound of laughing gulls mingled with the sounds of gentle waves on the beach. The heron, skittish around people, did not approach the nests.
The baby turtles also have to deal with predators introduced by humans, such as rats, mongooses, cats and dogs. These added predators make special protection for the turtles necessary, Cramer-Burke said.
While waiting for the babies to make their appearance, an added attraction was the sighting of an adult turtle in the sea.
As the first baby emerged and started to synchronize his two front flippers, one little girl chortled with glee. She continued giggling up to the point where she was given a chance to hold the baby in her hands.
One very young boy was afraid at first to hold a baby turtle in his hand. After a bit, however, he appeared to take great pleasure in sitting by a tub of the turtles and watching them. The children counted with excitement each and every baby that Mackay helped out of the nest.
About 50 turtles were gathered from the nests. By moonlight, Mackay then led the group to another point in the refuge where the babies should instinctively imprint with the beach. They scampered across the sand and were picked up by the waves. According to Mackay, they would now begin a swimming frenzy for 48 to 72 hours to get to the safety of deep water. Many of them probably would not make this journey past a last line of predators, including large fish such as barracuda.
This year the monitors have recorded 1,200 nests on St. Croix, a record number. "This may sound like a lot, but statistics show that with long line and drift-net fishing, they could still lose 40 percent of the turtle population in 20 years,” Mackay said.
The baby turtles are exact replicas of the adults, reaching maturity in 10 to 15 years, Mackay said. The females will lay 75 to 100 eggs in up to 14 nests each year for 35 to 40 years.
"Imagine that,” Cramer-Burke said. “But the good news is, once they lay the eggs, the babies are on their own. The mothers don't have to raise them."
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