Florida: Anna Maria Island, A Sea Turtle Summer with Kids. 
Lucky for us, our summer family vacation to Anna Maria Island corresponded with the hatching of hundreds of tiny sea turtles. Even luckier, immediately after check in we discovered a protected nest directly in front of our oceanfront apartment balcony.
We have seen nests marked off in the sand before but this time was different. We knew about how the mother sea turtle returns to there place of birth to lay eggs and how they must hatch in the total absence of artificial light to navigate to the ocean - but never in the day time so as to avoid being sea gull food.
The local visitor’s bureau directed us to the volunteer office of Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch, Inc. We learned even more about sea turtles and were inducted into their organization as temporary nest monitors. Once part of the local turtle culture, we even had a chance to view a planned release of hatchlings at another beach. Accustomed to such experiences only on TV nature shows, seeing this event for real was something we will never forget.
We learned that these already endangered species would be a lot worse off if it weren’t for an army of diligent volunteers assuring that the eggs hatch properly. These midwives, and “midhusbands”, of the surf also return to count all the hatched eggs, rescue any stragglers and report all the results to the governing regulatory agency which gives the permits to the volunteers – touching these cute and magnificent creatures is otherwise illegal.
Our sea turtle summer began to take shape. Armed with their deputized mission of nest monitoring, my children, Drew and Susan, ten and eight years old respectively, diligently checked the nest for signs of activity every night. As we were talking about how cool it would be if it hatched while we were here, two nights before we left, we observed surface sand movement in the afternoon and Turtle Watch quickly arrived with their donated ATV. Loyal residents and visitors joined the volunteers for the baby sitting well into the evening. By 8:00 PM, a sunken hole had formed in the sand and little subsurface flippers could be seen twitching at intervals.
Building lights were strategically off and one was quickly reminded how even starlight, the turtles’ beacon, provides ample illumination once the eyes adjust. Drew and Susan sat faithfully nest-side the whole time.
What amazed me the most was their ability to voluntarily sit quietly and motionless for hours. Turtles were able to do what I could not. Under turtle-invisible red beam flashlights, the creatures increased their bouts of fits and starts but failed to trigger the threshold needed to begin the instinctive chain reaction of a nest-synchronized exodus. Finally, at about 9:30 PM, labor ceased and delivery occurred.
As if on cue, they spilled forth from their sandy womb like a heard of tarantulas, to the squealing delight of children and adults alike. Drew likened it to a horror movie without the horror and realized this was a rare experience. Spreading into a fan-shaped flow of crawling reptilian carpet, they enveloped many of the bystanders requiring everyone to stand where they were to avoid accidentally stepping on the tykes. We will always remember the tickling of their proportionally large flippers as they crawled over our bare feet toward their water refuge. While interaction with humans is kept to a minimum, some stragglers needed redirecting and coaxing in the right direction. Susan very diligently led one apprehensive turtle in particular to its appropriate destination by pretending to be its mother. Other bystanders herded the rest as necessary. In about 20 minutes, all that was left on the beach was the occasional ghost crab, the gurgling of the surf and a silent breeze.
Vacation Planning Details
Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch, Inc. 1(941) 778-1435 or
www.islandturtles.com
Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. 3333 Sanibel-Captiva Road
P.O. Box 839 Sanibel, Florida 33957-0839, 1(239) 472-2329
or
www.sccf.org
Sea Turtle Conservation & Research. MML1600 Ken Thompson Parkway Sarasota, 34236. 1(941) 388-4331 or
www.mote.org
General Information
Florida Conservation Service. For a list of the statewide locations with permits to conduct turtle walks as well as a map of the walk locations go to
www.floridaconservation.org
North Florida Fish & Wildlife Service.
http://northflorida.fws.gov/SeaTurtles/turtle-facts-index.htm
Caribbean Conservation Corporation. Adopt a sea turtle. The Caribbean Conservation Corporation has several named turtles with satellite transmitters attached to the back of their shells. This allows us to use space age technology to learn more about their migratory behavior. When you adopt a satellite-tagged turtle, you can track the turtle's movements through our website! 4424 NW 13th St. Suite #A1 Gainesville, 32609. 1(352) 373-6441, tol-free 1-800-678-7853 or
www.cccturtle.org
SeaTurtle.org. This non-profit web-based NGO, aims to provide instant public access to pioneering research into the migrations of sea turtles and other marine animals using state-of-the-art satellite telemetry(3). The project is the result of collaboration with the UK's Marine Turtle Research Group(4) and a consortium of conservation organizations and donors. Michael Coyne SEATURTLE.ORG, Silver Spring, MD 1(301) 221-9952,
mcoyne@seaturtle.org or
www.seaturtle.org
Sea Turtle Hot Line. If you find a dead or injured sea turtle toll-free 1-888-404-FWCC (3922).
Chelonia is children's sea turtle story book developed in collaboration with Dawn Navarro of Manta Publications. It has been translated to Spanish and distributed to schools and libraries throughout California and Baja California to share a pro-turtle conservation message. The Spanish translation and distribution was generously supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Copies can be found through many online booksellers, or at the annual ISTS auction! Copyright: Sea Challengers Press.
