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Sunrise at Padre National Seashore
Crowds gather - the speaker on Kemp Ridley Sea Turtles
Last Wednesday for my outdoor and watery posting I mentioned that Bud and I were going to drive out on the island to the Padre Island National Seashore -National Park. It's a fabulous place. It's gated...as is all national parks...with an entrance gate with a park ranger. Here you can camp, go to a very pristine area of the sand barrier that covers most of the Texas Coast from South Padre Island near the Mexico border by Brownsville, Texas...all the way to Galveston Texas. Each year, they have sea turtle patrols. And each year, the government parks try and preserve all the Kemp Turtle eggs and hatch them in incubators after the nests have been found and gathered, taking them to the reserve area of the park's headquarters here on north Padre Island. You may ask why the reserve is doing this? To preserve the nearly extinct species...now from predators such as coyotes, birds, snakes and even those who take their vehicles and drive over the nests. Bud and I went last week, to the first release of the season. There ARE several scheduled releases during the nesting season running anywhere from late May through late August...each year.
Onlookers at one side of the release. Volunteer 'flaggers' to ward off seagull invasion
Rangers releasing the hatchlings. The warm sea awaits the new arrivals...
It all started many many years ago. Between Mexico and Texas of course, is the huge vast waterway...the Gulf of Mexico. Mexican hunters would come ashore on the Texas land, and they found that turtle eggs were very tasty. At one time, there were a reported 40,000 nests. By the hunters consuming the eggs found...the numbers dwindled down to 500 and that's when the National Parks stepped in to protect them from extinction. With the protected species, the hatchlings are released. At first, the experimenting didn't result into much growth and come back...then, they realized that the turtles, and nature,....they needed to be able to 'imprint'. Imprinting means that the turtles needed the 'smell, the surroundings, the instincts' of their own kind...which is being able to walk the shores...in the sand, the seaweed, the water....getting the 'feel' of the land....in order to return to their own habitat the following years to re-nest. Slowly, the Kemp Turtles are making a come back. Each year, the found nests are growing in numbers. The incubation nurseries are working....slowly but surely.
Last Monday morning at sunrise, they released 114 hatchlings!! Of course with predators out there in the vast ocean waters, only a very few will survive the enemy....to return to Padre Island. This year, in 2010, there are scheduled releases of many more nestlings.....beginning last week and more scheduled up until the end of July.
It was a phenomenal experience. I found myself cheering when they were released and the first one made the slow trek to the sea...only to be washed back up to the sand with the incoming wave....but the last one to make it----tears flowed. It was like sending my own child out in the cruel world....
Bye, bye...so long, auf wiedersehen .....adieu!! I wonder if my new found buddies will return in years to come when they're mature enough to be full of eggs...hatching on 'my island'?!!! Hope to see you back here someday my little one--------
By the way....I learned something that day last week. When the eggs are in the incubator, it's the temperature raised for the hatchlings that make them either male or female. The warmer the 'nest' the more females are born. Didn't know that before.
READ MORE ON KEMP RIDLEY TURTLES
POSTED: Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
12:30 A.M.
Onlookers at one side of the release. Volunteer 'flaggers' to ward off seagull invasion
Rangers releasing the hatchlings. The warm sea awaits the new arrivals...It all started many many years ago. Between Mexico and Texas of course, is the huge vast waterway...the Gulf of Mexico. Mexican hunters would come ashore on the Texas land, and they found that turtle eggs were very tasty. At one time, there were a reported 40,000 nests. By the hunters consuming the eggs found...the numbers dwindled down to 500 and that's when the National Parks stepped in to protect them from extinction. With the protected species, the hatchlings are released. At first, the experimenting didn't result into much growth and come back...then, they realized that the turtles, and nature,....they needed to be able to 'imprint'. Imprinting means that the turtles needed the 'smell, the surroundings, the instincts' of their own kind...which is being able to walk the shores...in the sand, the seaweed, the water....getting the 'feel' of the land....in order to return to their own habitat the following years to re-nest. Slowly, the Kemp Turtles are making a come back. Each year, the found nests are growing in numbers. The incubation nurseries are working....slowly but surely.
Last Monday morning at sunrise, they released 114 hatchlings!! Of course with predators out there in the vast ocean waters, only a very few will survive the enemy....to return to Padre Island. This year, in 2010, there are scheduled releases of many more nestlings.....beginning last week and more scheduled up until the end of July.
It was a phenomenal experience. I found myself cheering when they were released and the first one made the slow trek to the sea...only to be washed back up to the sand with the incoming wave....but the last one to make it----tears flowed. It was like sending my own child out in the cruel world....
Bye, bye...so long, auf wiedersehen .....adieu!! I wonder if my new found buddies will return in years to come when they're mature enough to be full of eggs...hatching on 'my island'?!!! Hope to see you back here someday my little one--------
By the way....I learned something that day last week. When the eggs are in the incubator, it's the temperature raised for the hatchlings that make them either male or female. The warmer the 'nest' the more females are born. Didn't know that before.
READ MORE ON KEMP RIDLEY TURTLES
POSTED: Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
12:30 A.M.