As a LMC volunteer, I was fortunate enough to participate in one of the first Turtle Walks of the season. The Turtle Walk is a unique program that allows visitors to learn about, and observe the nesting and egg-laying process of sea turtles.
Getting a chance to see a sea turtle in action takes some doing, but it’s a memorable experience. Worth the time, I highly recommended it.
I arrived for my walk at about 8:45pm and was shown a presentation about the sea turtle nesting process, the threats turtles encounter, and what we can do to help. Meanwhile, Loggerhead Marinelife Center scouts were down at the beach looking for turtles coming ashore to nest. While we knew there was no guarantee of spotting a turtle, our group waited patiently until we got the call that “our” Loggerhead sea turtle had begun digging her nest, this was at about 10:30pm.
As a group we were led down to the beach and allowed to observe this fascinating process. We got there just in time to witness “our” turtle deposit about 50 ping pong ball shaped-eggs into her nest. The eggs are soft-shelled, and are papery to leathery in texture. They do not break when they fall. We were asked to stay behind the turtle where she couldn’t see us and they put a small red light in the nest to illuminate the eggs.
I really enjoyed this outing, it was wonderful to witness a natural event that’s been on going for over 165 million years. A big shout out and thank you to all the Loggerhead MarineLife Center staff and volunteers, this was a pretty unforgettable experience.
