- May 8, 2024
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Nearly 200 people gathered to watch a turtle next excavation. (Photos by Lesley Dwyer)
Cyndi Seamon educates the group on sea turtle nests and how to protect them.
Sam DiGiammarino shows the crowd a picture of a sea turtle caught under a beach chair.
Caleb Jameson and his mom, Brenda, perform a turtle nest excavation.
Caleb Jameson takes measurements as he excavated the nest.
106 shells and four unhatched eggs are removed from a turtle nest on Longboat Key.
Lois Gillen records the number of shells and eggs removed.
Brenda and Caleb Jameson pull egg shells out of a loggerhead turtle nest.
Turtle egg shells are soft, not brittle like chicken egg shells.
LBKTW volunteers Brenda and Caleb Jameson finish up a turtle nest excavation.
Children curiously peer into the empty turtle nest.
Four unhatched eggs and 106 turtle shells are removed from a loggerhead nest on Longboat Key.
Children touching the egg shells after the excavation.
Tim Thurman warns Reagan Ziegler to wash her hands after touching the shells and eggs.
An empty turtle nest after LBKTW performed an excavation on Aug. 1.
The crowd lingers to watch sunset after the excavation.
A smaller group releases three hatchlings into the Gulf of Mexico after a public nest excavation.
One of three turtle hatchlings released into the gulf by LBKTW on August 1.
A hatchling nears the waves, ready for its first swim.
Two hatchlings head out to the Gulf of Mexico.
A sea turtle hatchling enters the water for the first time.
“When you watch a turtle go into the water, it puts tears in your eyes,” Ginny Kissling said.
Kissling, along with nearly 200 others, huddled around a turtle nest on the beach in front of The Westchester condominiums on Monday, hoping to tear up at the sight of a hatchling.
The Longboat Key Turtle Watch invited the public to a loggerhead nest excavation. Excavations are a routine part of the volunteer group's work but are usually conducted privately.
Typically, they're performed about three days after the first hatchling finds its way out of the buried nest to ensure there aren't others still under the sand in need of assistance. In this case, it was a good news, bad news situation.
Good news: The nest was empty, so all the baby turtles made it out.
Bad news: The nest was empty, so the dozens of people hoping to glimpse a rare sight didn't get the full experience.
Still, there was a lot to see and touch. And learn.
Excavations provide data for Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. This excavation showed 106 sea turtles hatched and four eggs were left unhatched.
The eggs are slightly smaller than a golf ball, and the shells are soft. The kids on hand couldn’t keep their hands off them after the presentation. Members of LBKTW said they were OK to touch but urged everyone to wash up because of potential bacteria.
Caleb Jameson and his mom, Brenda, conducted the excavation. They started going on turtle patrols when Caleb was 8 years old. By 13, he was a permitted volunteer. He’ll be 17 on Aug. 9 and has no plans to stop.
“I want to major in marine biology,” he said, “I want it to be my career.”
After the sun set and the crowd dissipated, when it wouldn’t be too stressful or disorienting for the turtles, Jameson and a small group stayed behind to release three hatchlings. Two were found in other excavated nests, and one was a late hatch.
