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NEW LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLE VIDEO
This summer my family and
I had a chance to see the about 5 nest hatch over a 3 day period in
August on Anna Maria Island, Florida.
The first day we were out on the beach and saw a group of people just huddle
around loggerhead nest. we walk up and just happen to see the last of them
heading for the water around 10 pm.
So the next day we went looking for nest and found that about 10 nest were
expected to hatch over the next 2 day. We went to Best Buy bought to 2 set of 12
IR Led flood light for our night shot Sony camera and brought along a couple of
red led flashlight and a orange/yellow filter flash light to fine the nest. We
arrive at one of the nest at 9:30 pm and the nest had hatched only 3 turtles
were left pretty cool for the kids to watch. then we walk up on a nest a half
mile up the beach and it was half done saw about 20 turtles. My wife & family
enjoy watch this one too. still excited about the other nest we just saw, we
walk a little further and came across a sunken nest about 11pm. We looked at the
nest no flipper print in the sand and the nest was 2 day over due. so we sat
around for about an hour to see what would happen, just when we were ready to
leave a head appeared out of the sand. so we sat down and waited. about an hour
later another head appear and then another and another. but then it stop for
about 20 minutes. then all of a sudden like someone just threw a stick into a
fire ant mound. A hundred baby turtle push there way to the surface all at once
and made a mad dash down the beach to the water. Here is the 25 minutes of video
we took that night edited down to 3 - 2 minute clips. The nest hatching, the run
to the water and baby turtle walking into the surf.
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 The Arrival of the
Loggerhead Turtles
90 percent of the loggerhead nests found in the United States are in
Florida
May 1 through October 31
Water temperature is one of the cues used to regulate the onset of the nesting season and the interval between nesting emergences.
Sea turtles usually nest at night but there are notable exceptions.
In Florida several instances of daylight nesting by loggerhead (like This
One), green, and leatherback turtles have been reported,
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HATCHING Loggerhead Seaturtles.
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From May 1 through October 31 each year,
Manatee County's beaches become nesting grounds for are most
endangered and threatened Sea turtles Tracking studies show that female loggerheads about to nest move into the surf off the nesting beach in the late afternoon and early evening to wait for nightfall. If a crawl onto the beach does not result in a successful nest, a female will return to the water and swim parallel to the beach in the surf zone until another emergence is made or until sunrise. If nesting is successful, the turtle swims away from the beach to a shoal area to await dawn.
Female sea turtles must leave the safety of the sea to lay their eggs on land. The arduous process of nesting takes up to three hours. A turtle must drag her great weight ashore, dig a nest,
using one rear flipper removes a scoop of sand, the other rear flipper shoots forward to spread sand to the side and front. The egg cavity is flask-shaped and usually tilted slightly. When the cavity is complete, the turtle proceeds to lay her eggs, often two or three at a time with brief rest periods in between. Mucus is often secreted between batches of eggs. The eggs do not break as they drop into the nest hole because the shells are leathery and flexible.
After deposit roughly one hundred eggs, Theb she must cover and conceal the nest before returning to the sea. The mother turtle leaves her eggs to incubate in the warm sand and never visits the nest again. A female will usually lay several nests during one season and returning to the
same nesting place every 3-4 years
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Turtle Track found after one of our
nightly visitors. |
Here is a marked nest the kept people from accidentally damaging the
nest by stepping on them. The markers are also used to the turtle watch
group can monitor the safety of the nest and there content easily. |
Temperature affects many phases of a sea turtle's life because, as a reptile, body temperature is usually within a few degrees of that of the environment. The importance of temperature begins Water temperature is one of the cues used to regulate the onset of the nesting season
& also with the eggs in the nest because temperature is critical to egg development and influences the sex of the growing embryo. Incubation temperatures above 30°C (86°F) produce mostly females while temperatures below 28°C (82.4°F) produce mostly males. The critical time for sex determination occurs during the middle third of incubation. During this period, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels as well as other factors also may be influential.
Incubation temperature also determines the number of days eggs take to hatch. A 1°C (1.8°F) decrease in temperature from shading or excessive rain may add five days to the incubation period. Incubation temperature can vary with the location of a nest on the beach and the degree of shading. On beaches that are fairly uniform fewer females may be produced during the cooler ends of the nesting season. The
Loggerhead turtles lays between 80 and a hundred eggs in each nest. After incubating for about two months, the sea turtles hatch, erupt as a group from the nest at night, and scurry down the beach to the sea. Many years will pass before the few hatchlings that survive to maturity will be ready to reproduce. Sea turtles are presumed to return to nest on or near the beach where they
hatched. |
 Turtle
tracks can be found throughout the season on the beaches of Anna Maria
Island and Along Most of the coast of Florida. This is all that remains of
the turtle's long night work at the to track is the nest that can be as
deep as 2 feet. as long as turtle had not be startle be beach walker on
noise or light. Sea turtles are heavy, slow and awkward on land and nesting is exhausting work. The loggerhead, hawksbill and both species of ridleys move on land with a lizard-like gait in which the diagonal limbs move simultaneously. The leatherback and green turtle, however, haul themselves forward by moving the opposite limbs together. The tracks made by each species of sea turtle are distinctive and can be used to census nesting activity. |
Hatchlings 
Leaving the nest is a group activity that can take several days. The first turtles to hatch wait quietly until more nestmates are free of their eggshells. This creates a small air pocket that gives the hatchlings room to thrash around. The hatchlings do not instinctively dig upward but instead respond to the movement of nestmates in such a way that the turtles are brought to the surface. The activity of one turtle triggers the movement of others so that with sporadic outbursts the hatchlings move as a group towards the surface. As the ceiling and walls of the chamber collapse from the thrashing turtles, the floor rises until the hatchlings are near the surface. Turtles hatching alone or a few at a time have little chance of escaping from the nest.
the two-inch long turtles Hatchlings usually emerge
from their nest at night in response to cooling surface temperatures. |
Hatchlings emerge and move quickly toward the moonlit sea. wrong direction
away from the water and sometime even into the path of a near by traffic.
Finding Water
How hatchlings just out of the nest find the sea has been studied extensively and is still not completely understood. The most widely accepted view is that hatchlings have a complex reaction to light that causes them to move toward the brightest and most open horizon.
As hatchlings move down the beach, the activity of one stimulates others in the group to move just as it did in the nest This keeps the turtles moving so they cross the dangerous beach as quickly as possible. Once the hatchlings reach the water they must negotiate the surf. As the turtle touches water the crawling motion is replaced by a swimming stroke and the turtle dives to the bottom and aides the undertow. This diving response prevents the hatchling from being thrown back onto the beach.
Out to Sea
Hatchling turtles swim continuously for up to 24 hours after entering the water. This "swim frenzy" gets the hatchings into deeper water and away from predators. Hatchling green turtles released from a beach were clocked at an average speed of 1.5 kilometers/hour (1 mile/hour). These turtles maintained a straight course even after they could no longer see the shore. Leftover yolk retained in the abdomen provides food during the first few days.
Many hatchlings swim offshore to live for several years in floating seaweed drifting along the edges of the ocean currents. Eventually the young turtles take up residence in coastal
waters
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 After the all the turtles have exited the next
a turtle watch volunteer
inspects the remains |
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 Here is a picture
of the discarded shells after they have hatched. |
Do your part to protect our sea turtles.
There are many things we can do to promote the survival of sea turtles.
First, we must remember that we share the beach and ocean with many
other species. Never approach turtles emerging from the sea or disturb
or harass nesting turtles by making noise, shining lights or trying to
ride them. To observe nesting turtles, join one of the many
state-permitted "turtle walks" conducted by experienced guides during
the nesting season
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