longboat Observer
YourObserver.com
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011
One of the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital hatchlings gets weighed as part of the daily routine for each patient that comes to hospital.
Photos by Rachel S. O’Hara
One of the patients of the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital at Mote Marine Laboratory swims around in its aquarium, which visitors can view while seeing the turtles, manatees and dolphins at Mote.
WAVES OF SUPPORT
11A
Donna Heffner, a member of the Longboat Key Turtle Watch, marks one of the stakes to be used at turtle nest that hatched in July on Longboat Key. This was Heffner’s 11th season with the Turtle Watch group.
by Rachel S. O’Hara | Staff Photographer
Nesting
mode
During this year’s sea-turtle season, which runs from May to October, Longboat Observer photographer Rachel S. O’Hara teamed up with Mote Marine scientists and volunteers, as well as Longboat Key Turtle Watch volunteers, to get an upclose look of what turtle season is like on the Key. The first meeting of the season for Mote volunteers drew hundreds of people, who learned how to properly find and mark a nest and how to take care of the hatchlings without endangering their well-being in the process. Mote has approximately 300 beach-monitoring volunteers. During the summer, an early-morning walk with Longboat Key Turtle Watch volunteers (of which there are 35 who patrol
the Manatee County side of the island) resulted in marking several freshly laid nests. The group also got a distress call about a turtle that needed help making its way to water. Sunset turtle-nest excavations give members of the public a chance to learn about sea turtles and their nests; a few hatchlings that needed help getting out of their nests were released into the Gulf of Mexico. Mote’s Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital nurses turtles back to health and even offers them physical therapy. This season, 1,284 loggerhead turtle nests were counted in Sarasota and Manatee counties — 275 were documented on Longboat Key.
A hatchling makes its way toward the Gulf of Mexico Aug. 3, on Longboat Key.
Donna Heffner and Carol Mae excavate a nest on Longboat Key. All nests are excavated three days after they are presumed to have hatched. This nest had 94 hatched eggs, 24 unhatched eggs and one dead pip, a turtle that makes it only part of the way out of its egg.
Hundreds of volunteers met in early April at Mote Marine to go over the basics about sea turtles and turtle season as well as the proper protocol for marking nests. They also learned about federal and state laws regarding how much interaction can be had with hatchlings and the nests.
Holly West, sea turtle care coordinator at Mote, measures one of the hatchlings to see how much it has grown. Greg Fiore talks to the crowd about how important it is to not use flash photography during the turtle release Aug. 3, on the beach in the 4300 block of Longboat Key. The crowd of spectators came out to see a turtle nest excavation, as well as see the hatchlings be released into the Gulf of Mexico.