Little sea turtle hatchlings are very cute.
They're very energetic.
They're very motivated to get to the water
because their instinct is to crawl across the beach, and start their lives in the ocean.
My name is Rachel Bladow.
I'm a marine turtle specialist at Gumbo Limbo
Nature Center.
An average day is we clock into work just
before sunrise, and we get ready.
We write down everything that we need: our
nest numbers, any excavation that we have.
And then we get out on the beach with our
ATV's and then we patrol.
So we look for signs of false crawls, or hopefully,
signs of nests.
So when we have a nest hatch out, hopefully
most of them will come all out together in
one and make their way to the ocean.
Three days later, we come back to the same
nest that hatched out, and we excavate it.
So that means we're digging it up, seeing
how many hatched and how many didn't.
So sometimes, it's exciting.
We'll find a little live hatchling during
that excavation, and so we'll bring those
back to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center for the
day.
They'll sleep the day away and they're released
that night.
We're hoping that maybe there's a chance that there's
a few strong ones that just missed
that first message of 'Everyone's leaving.'
So we at least try and give them a chance
to go out and be hatchlings,
and make their way out in the ocean.
Sea turtles are on the decline, and we are
seeing a decrease in the population.
If we can help protect them on the beach,
we can hopefully ensure that more little hatchlings
are surviving, and getting out into the ocean,
and hopefully helping the population increase, or at least maintain.
Your Story segments brought to you in part
by the Brunetti Foundation.
