Sea Turtles Information kindly provided by Turtle Time, Inc.

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A Special Wonder Nesting loggerhead sea turtle. Photo courtesy Laura Riley Each summer from May through August something wondrous happens along our beaches: an ancient mariner, the loggerhead sea turtle, leaves the water during the night and crawls ashore to lay her eggs in a sandy nest. The task of excavating a nest may take her over an hour to accomplish. The turtle, weighing several hundred pounds, laboriously digs a deep nest cavity with her rear flippers. She then deposits approximately 100 leathery ping-pong ball sized eggs into the nest cavity, covers them with sand and returns to the Gulf, leaving the hatchlings to fend for themselves. Loggerhead hatchling. Photo courtesy Turtle Time, Inc. After roughly a two-month incubation period, a cluster of tiny hatchlings emerges from the sand at night and scrambles to the Gulf. Unfortunately, their sea-finding ability can be disrupted by lights from buildings and streets. Confused, the hatchlings wander inland and are crushed by vehicles or die from heat exhaustion in the sunlight. A Danger of Extinction Most adult loggerhead turtles nest every other year or every third year, laying several clutches of eggs during a nesting season. Only a small percentage of hatchlings survive to maturity. Loggerhead turtles have existed on Earth for millions of years with little serious threat to their survival...until recently. Pollution, lighted beaches, loss of nesting habitat, drowning in shrimp nets and other fishing gear and boating related accidents, all have contributed to the drastic decline of these and other sea turtles. For instance, light that reaches nesting beaches alters critical nocturnal behaviors. Nightime lights can disturb a female as she makes her way up the beach in search of a nesting site and also when she labors back to the surf after nesting. Hatchlings seek the brightest light source upon emerging from the nest. Artifical lights can lead them to a roadway instead of to the waiting waters of the Gulf. Sea turtles and their nests are protected under Federal, state and local laws. There are some things we can all do to help preserve these ancient creatures. Find out what you can do by reading, "How to be Turtle Friendly".