I Got Up at the Crack of Early For This
If you look carefully, you will see many black spots on the sand. Look towards where the guy with the camera is facing.
This is the up close and personal. A Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle hatchling, making his way to the water. We got up around 5:45 to drive out to the sea shore to see about 200 of them make their way from the beach to the water.
This is, probably, my fifth time to see a turtle release. I’m still totally fascinated.
It fascinates me that something this tiny
Can go into something this big
and remember where it came from.
Thanks to Joy for this photo 
It wasn’t by chance that we happened upon this little marvel of nature. In 1979 humans got involved in gathering the eggs from turtle nests in Mexico and bringing them to Texas to incubate and release. Nest were first noticed on the Texas seashore starting in 1996.
Kemp’s ridley nests documented on the Texas coast since 1996
Year
No. of Nests
No. of Eggs
Hatchlings Released
1996
6
590
369
1997
9
968
893
1998
13
1,270
800
1999
16
1,681
1,364
2000
12
1,160
1,000
2001
8
837
584
2002
38
3,771
2,536
2003
19
1,718
1,426
2004
42
3,928
3,298
2005
50
4,700
3,402
2006
102
9,717
7,475
2007
128
12,555
10,596
2008
195
17,958*
15,819**
*Of the 195 nests discovered, 185 of the nests kept in protected incubation contained 17,958
This year 197 nests were found and incubated at the Padre Island National Seashore, setting a new record. The final clutches were released this morning.
There were 200 turtles released this morning. Of those 200, only a fraction will survive to maturity. Released turtles have a 1/100 chance of surviving to maturity, their wild counterparts fair much worse with a survival rate of about 1/1,000.
The nest season starts in April and generally run until June. The clutches released this morning were found in the beginning of July. Padre Island National Seashore holds hatchling releases from late May until August every year. The bulk of those releases held in June and July.
If you would like to learn more about attending a future sea turtle release in Texas go here.
August 23rd, 2009 at 7:34 am
VERY COOL! Definitely worth being up a the crack of earlly.
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August 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Very cool!! Thanks for sharing with those of us that are far from the shores
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August 23rd, 2009 at 9:57 pm
That is totally so very cool! I love it! I wish I lived anywhere near there to see it.
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