THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 19, 1994 TAG: 9409190051
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY DARA McLEOD, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: PEA ISLAND NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
The sand moves, and the head of a tiny turtle pokes out of the nest. A few seconds later, a tiny flipper becomes visible. In an egg nearby, another head and more flippers slowly begin to emerge.
Next, the nest starts to ``boil,'' as experienced turtle watchers say. The turtles start crawling out so fast it's difficult to keep count.
And the long wait is suddenly worthwhile.
The turtle watchers have been on the beach for more than two hours, coming as the sun sets and the mosquitoes descend. The assistant manager of the refuge, Elizabeth Parks, and a few other dedicated souls hike along a narrow trail armed with flashlights, a shovel and bug repellant.
On the beach, they head for a row of 3-foot posts, each marking the location of a loggerhead sea turtle nest - 42 posts in all.
Nests in which the eggs are about to hatch are surrounded by a small screen barrier, the only thing protecting the baby turtles from hungry ghost crabs, birds, cats and raccoons.
Several man-made trenches, about 6 inches deep, lead from the nests to a larger trench that winds its way out to the ocean, about 150 yards away. When the turtles hatch, volunteers escort them through these trenches, luring them toward the ocean with flashlights.
For Parks and about 20 turtle watch volunteers, this is a nightly ritual. They're willing to endure hours and hours of waiting, throngs of mosquitoes and fierce winds to make sure the baby loggerheads that emerge from these nests make it to the ocean safely.
Parks estimate that only about 5 percent of the turtles that hatch here would make it to the ocean on their own. But she says 60 to 70 percent reach the ocean with the assistance of those in the turtle watch program.
``Most of the nests - if we hadn't relocated them - would have already been washed over,'' she says. ``And for the ones that weren't washed over, the turtles' chances of making it past the ghost crabs and birds would be very slim.
``Some hatch after we leave here around midnight,'' Parks said. ``I'll follow the tracks in the morning, and they usually end at a ghost crab hole.''
Loggerheads, classified as a threatened species and protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, spend most of their lives at sea.
But females return to the beach during the summer to lay their eggs late at night. They crawl up toward the dunes, usually just beyond the high-tide mark, and use their flippers to dig small holes. There, they lay up to 150 golf-ball size eggs each, cover the eggs with sand and head back to sea.
The soon-to-be-mother turtles leave behind bulldozer-like tracks known as ``crawls.''
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officers and volunteers begin sunrise patrols of this 28-mile stretch of beach around Memorial Day. They locate the nests by observing the turtle crawls, marking the location of the nests that are safe from high tide and relocating those that aren't. The eggs hatch about 50 to 55 days after the nest is laid, which is when the nightly turtle watches begin. The patrols continue until the last egg has hatched, usually by late October.
This year, Parks and the volunteers have been unusually busy.
For the last several years, only about 13 nests have been made on the refuge. Dennis Stewart, refuge wildlife biologist, says officials aren't sure why there has been such a substantial increase.
``The only thing I've heard is that it's happened all up and down the coast,'' Stewart said.
Each night, the turtle watch starts with a briefing for newcomers, and on this night one of those newcomers is Parks' mother, Carol Fox of Newport News, whose closest brush with sea turtles up to now has been watching them on television nature shows.
In the distance, the lights of Rodanthe - further south on Hatteras Island - are clearly visible, and there are lights from the more populous parts of the Outer Banks to the north.
By instinct, the turtles head toward light, preferably moonlight or starlight, which is how they find their way to the ocean. But the artificial light in the distance causes the animals to become disoriented. Volunteers use flashlights to help the confused turtles find their way.
Parks and Rae Braudaway, a volunteer on her third night with the turtle watch, check each nest every 15 to 20 minutes. They look for a little depression in the sand, which indicates that the turtles have emerged from the eggs and are slowly making their way up to the surface.
``They'll stay underground for up to a week, but usually just two or three days,'' Parks explains.
Slowly, she reaches down into the nest, gently feeling for the turtles to see how far below the surface they are.
``We'll definitely be seeing turtles tonight,'' she announces as she pulls her hand out.
On this night, the trenches already have been dug, so there is nothing to do but sit and wait.
``It can get pretty boring out here,'' Parks says. ``Sometimes we just sit and watch the stars for hours.''
It's dark and chilly on the beach, but the wind is still.
Mosquitoes, not the least bit bothered by the bug repellent, nibble on hands and faces and even bite through sweat shirts and jeans.
Finally, after a two-hour wait, Braudaway announces that she sees a turtle.
As they boil out of the nest, Parks runs about 10 feet ahead of the 2- to 3-inch creatures and points her flashlight toward them. As they begin their march through the trench toward the ocean, some appear weak and clumsy, flipping over on their backs. Others are fast and strong, almost racing ahead toward the light.
The turtles crawl closer to the ocean, and hundreds of ghost crabs stand watch over their potential prey.
One of the turtles Parks leads is hit by a wave and pushed back up the beach. A ghost crab makes its move, but Parks gets to the crab first. With one fell swoop of the flashlight, she smashes it.
``Some people don't like to kill them. But once you see a ghost crab toting off a little baby turtle - you just think `ahhh,' '' she says with frustration.
Braudaway and some other volunteers prefer to just shoo the ghost crabs away, but there are hundreds of them and they're persistent.
Excitement and emotions run high as more and more turtles reach the ocean and get swept out to sea by retreating waves. In all, 28 emerge from one nest and two from another. It takes about an hour to lead all of them to the ocean, but for the volunteers, each journey seems to take an eternity.
``A lot of this you just figure out as you go along, like learning what confuses the turtles and what doesn't when you use the flashlight,'' Braudaway said.
``For me, it's great to see them crawl out of the nest. I can't believe how tiny they are. I guess I expected them to be much larger because the adults are so large.''
Loggerhead turtles will grow to 3 feet long and weigh 250 to 500 pounds.
Although refuge officials admit it would be faster to carry the turtles to the ocean, handling is kept to a minimum. The nesting process is not fully understood, but experts believe the females return to lay their eggs on the same beach where they hatched. Too much interference could disrupt the natural process.
``The more natural process is for the turtle to crawl across the beach to get to the ocean,'' Stewart said. ``They aren't going to get much of a feel for the beach in a 5-gallon bucket. Our goal is to make sure a maximum number survive with a minimum amount of interference.''
Once the turtles reach the ocean, however, they're on their own.
The tiny turtles' survival is threatened by predators such as grouper and sharks, some shrimp and fish nets and even trash at sea. Sea turtles have been known to ingest plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish. The bags may lodge in the turtle's digestive tract, stopping the flow of food.
``Based on the number of adult turtles that are seen, speculation is that the mortality rate is very high,'' Steward said.
But the odds don't discourage Parks, Stewart and the turtle watch volunteers. They plan to keep watching and waiting until each nest has hatched and each turtle has made it safely to sea. ILLUSTRATION: Offering guidance
[Color photo by] DREW C. WILSON/Staff
A volunteer's flashlight beam lures two Loggerhead sea turtles
toward the Atlantic Ocean. The turtles usually find their way to the
sea by crawling instinctively toward the starlight or moonlight, but
they are often confused by light from nearby cities.
by CNB