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| A Special Wonder |
| 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 sand nest. |
| The task of excavating a nest may take her over an hour to accomplish. The turtle weighing several hundred pounds.... laboriously digs a nest cavity with her rear flippers. |
| She then deposits approximately 100 pliable ping-pong ball sized eggs into the chamber, covers them with sand and returns to the sea. |
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| After roughly a two-month incubation period, a cluster of tiny hatchlings emerges from the sand and scrambles to the ocean. Unfortunately, their sea-finding ability can be disrupted by lights from building and streets. Confused, the hatchlings wander inland and are crushed by vehicles or die from heat exhaustion in the sunlight. |
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| 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 habiatat, drowning in shrimp nets and other fishing gear have contributed to the drastic decline of these and other sea turtles |
| Loggerhead Turtle Facts |
| Loggerheads are air-breathing reptiles, scientific name Caretta Caretta. |
| The common name refers to the turtle's large head. |
| Loggerheads are the most common sea turtles in Florida. |
| Their food consists of mollusks, crabs and animals that encrust reefs and rocks. |
| Weighing 240-400 pounds, adults can grow to more than three feet in lenght. |
| Hatchlings are two inches long. |
| Nesting occurs from May through August and the nest cavity is 18-22- inches in depth. |
| Incubation period of the eggs in their sandy nest is 55-65 days. |
| It is possible for humans to share the beaches and oceans with sea turtles. Their fate depends on all of us. Residents and visitors alike must share the responsibility for making our beaches turtle-friendly! |
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