The end of this year's nesting season is nigh, and there's not a lot more action, especially at the North end where there was significant beach erosion. I'm heading out for the Underwater Festival in Antibes, France, so this will be my last blog entry for a while. A couple of weeks ago I went out surveying with Callie and Debbie, who are shown here excavating a couple of nests. 

There were no hatchlings, just eggs to count. The green turtle nests are quite deep, and require a lot of digging before you can locate the clutch and count the eggs.

One nest was very unusual because the turtle had nested under a crossover. Instead of sand, which normally covers the beach there was topsoil instead which had washed down from the condo landscaping. You can see the photo where the earth is all dark.

Nesting numbers were down, even though we ended up not having any hurricanes. The exact numbers are on the Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island web site at http://www.singerislandseaturtles.com. The entire north end of the island has lost its beach, and therefore its nests. Many of the condos on the North end are considering sea walls, such as the one under construction here at Sea Dunes. Once the beach is armored, that's it for the turtles. They won't be able to nest without protective dunes. Beach armoring is a complex issue with no easy answers. The ABA Law Journal addressed the legal aspects in its July article, Up Against the Seawall. It's available online at http://www.abanet.org/journal/redesign/07fbeach.html.

The fact that the North end will likely be armored within a few years makes it all the more tragic that the Riviera Beach City Council is trying to push through a deal where they'll give away part of the public beach on the South end to a developer for a high-rise hotel. This is the widest and deepest part of the beach, and is not threatened by erosion. Local activists are circulating a petition that registered voters can sign to allow people to vote on the proposal. Mayor Brown and some of the council members are on record as saying that opponents of the deal are opposed to all development, which simply isn't true. What the opponents of the giveaway want is a renovation of the existing Ocean Mall into a world-class beach resort with protected dunes where the sea turtles can nest and the hatchlings won't get disoriented due to the lights from the tall buildings. It seems so obvious that promoting Singer Island as an eco-resort where visitors could interact with turtles and hatchlings without damaging them or the environment could be a huge tourist attraction, far outweighing the short-term financial gain from a single Marriott hotel, but greed allied with a stunning lack of imagination seems to be the main characteristics of the current government. The activist group Citizens for Responsible Growth for Riviera Beach tells the preservationist side of the story at http://www.rg4rb.org/1_new_first_Frame.htm. Try to ignore the garish colors and annoying flashing animations. Underneath it all there's some interesting content. The Palm Beach Post also has an ongoing series on the larger eminent domain controversies Riviera Beach is embroiled in on their web site at http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/news/special_reports/riviera_beach.

Now that nesting season is over I plan to write about scuba diving pioneer Norine Rouse, who passed away this year. She is shown in this photo (taken some years ago by Douglas Seifert) with her friend Robert, who came back to visit her every year for 17 years until one year he came no more.

Her daughters have loaned her dive logs to Larry Wood, the curator of the Loggerhead Marine Life Center (http://www.marinelife.org) so that they can be transcribed and entered into a database. They constitute a unique historical record of the Palm Beach underwater environment since the 1970's. So much has been lost already that it's heartbreaking to see decisions made today that continue to negatively impact marine life in this most special corner of the world. To learn more about Norine's amazing life and the impact she had on the lives of all of the people and creatures who knew and loved her, take a look at the 6 pages of guest book entries from the Palm Beach Post at http://www.legacy.com/palmbeachpost/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=16138604. This will give you an idea of what a great gift her detailed dive logs are for gaining a deeper understanding of how our local marine ecosystem has been degraded over time.

That's it for the sea turtle season in 2006. You'll see the volunteers from the Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island out there again in 2007, hoping for a better year.

This week Debbie excavated a green turtle nest that had to be at least 5 feet deep. A lot of sand had washed up on top of a nest that was probably already 3 to 4 feet deep, so this one went down quite far. She did find it, as well as over 100 eggshells, a few infertile eggs, and 6 live hatchlings, one of which hadn't fully emerged from its shell. The hatchlings seemed lethargic, so we placed them in my collapsible green bucket, shown here. You can see the little flippers part way out of the shell.

By the time we had finished digging and counting, one of the more active hatchlings escaped from the bucket, which folds on itself. The others seemed content to stay where they were, snoozing in the shady bucket.

However, escaping from the green bucket was only the beginning of our hatchling's adventures. Here she stands poised on the brink of disaster: A deep footprint in the sand.

Sometimes it seems as though the hatchlings are drawn to obstacles they could easily walk around. She's face down and struggling mightily.

It's easy to get upended when you don't know which way is up. She's trying to right herself now after having fallen into a different footprint.

Here she is, free (after a little help).

Footprints and other obstacles can be dangerous to the turtles if no human is around to lend a helping hand. Their struggles make them visible to birds and other predators, and even if they don't get eaten, they expend precious energy struggling before they even get to the water. If their energy stores are depleted before they even get to the water they may not make it all the way out to the gulf stream.

The other hatchlings got a ride in the car to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center. see http://www.marinelife.org, where they will be cared for in the turtle hospital in the hatchling tank. If it looks like they're desperately trying to escape, that's because they are. The hatchlings are hard-wired to keep swimming, swimming, swimming. There is no concept of "holding tank" in their evolutionary history. Fortunately, they are being fed so they don't exhaust themselves and drown.

On the drive to the Marine Life Center, I heard some rustling in the green bucket which I had on the driver's side floor. I assumed some of the sleepy turtles had woken up and become active, but instead the partially hatched turtle completed the process and had broken out of her shell. Here she is in the hatchling ICU section, which is a little mesh platform where the weak turtles can rest without having to swim.

There are alternating bars of light and shade in the turtle hospital so it's difficult to see, but her shell is crumpled and hasn't fully popped out yet (top turtle).

The hatchlings will be fed and cared for until they are well enough to be taken out to the gulf stream, where their chances of survival are increased.

The Marine Life Center also cares for a variety of other sick and injured turtles. This green was badly injured by a boat propeller, much like the dead green I wrote about in "Death on the Beach" earlier in the year. If you view the photo on the right in the picture album you can see how deep the wound is.

The Marine Life Center is also a good place to appreciate the natural beauty of the turtles in a way that is impossible in the ocean, even for scuba divers. The water is clear and shallow, and the turtles aren't going anywhere very far. This is a lovely little hawksbill. You can see why they were almost driven to extinction for their shells to make into jewelry and combs.

You can also see the hatchlings themselves in greater detail, as shown here with this green hatchling.

The loggerheads are also quite beautiful and it's fascinating to view their subtle coloration and details up close.

Some turtles also have companion animals, like this one with a grouper tank mate (see bottom left). It was hard to take a good photo because the grouper likes to hang out under the turtle's chin in the shade. I guess the grouper feels safe there, although it might not be so safe if the turtle wasn't well fed.

The turtle hospital is instrumental in saving thousands of hatchlings every year as well as countless mature sick and injured turtles. The Marine Life Center, like the Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island (http://www.singerislandseaturtles.com), is a non-profit organization staffed largely by volunteers who donate their time and energies to trying to keep sea turtles from the brink of extinction.

As you might expect, it costs a lot of money to care for and rehabilitate sick and injured turtles, approximately $1600 per turtle per year. The Marine Life Center is in the process of building a new facility and are continually trying to raise funds for their programs. You can adopt a turtle, or simply make a tax-deductible donation. Contact them at:

Loggerhead Marinelife Center of Juno Beach
14200 US Hwy. One
Juno Beach FL 33408
561-627-8280 fax 561-627-8305

You can also make a donation on their web site at http://www.marinelife.org/donations.htm. The Sea Turtle Conservation League of Singer Island donated $1000 to the new building under the Green Sea Turtle heading as well as our old ATV (all-terrain vehicle) which they will use as a backup if one of theirs breaks down.

If you are in the area, the turtle yard is definitely worth a visit. It's a terrific opportunity to see these wonderful reptiles up close and to meet and speak with the volunteers who care so deeply about saving them.