AFMC Command News

Sea turtle eggs on Eglin beach make trek to evade potential oil spill effects

  • Published
  • By Mike Spaits
  • 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Though the oil well has finally been capped, Eglin biologists are still digging up sea turtle nests and moving the eggs to the East Coast as a safety precaution.

To date, three of Eglin's nine nests have been excavated and more than 300 eggs have been transported to Cape Canaveral, Fla., in hopes of diverting the hatchlings from possible life-threatening exposure to the oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico.

"The turtles like to eat their prey that hang onto solid objects like grass mats. The turtle may mistake oil mats for grass mats and may emerge into it thinking there's food there and, instead, ingest oil," said Kathy Gault, endangered species biologist with Eglin's Natural Resources section.

The effort is part of a national plan to relocate more than 700 nests from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic. Beginning June 26, biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the National Park Service and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Agency devised the plan to excavate the eggs from all sea turtle nests in Mississippi, Alabama and Northern Florida and transport them to the Atlantic Coast for hatching and release in an attempt to save as many as possible.

Rather than risk releasing the hatchlings into the Gulf of Mexico where they could encounter oil, the agencies chose to relocate them with minimal vibration and close temperature control.

"Turtles need to breathe air, so there's potential they could emerge through an oil slick and either absorb the toxins through their skin or eat the oil. Also, since the hatchlings can't stay submerged as long as adults, they have a much greater chance for exposure," said Ms. Gault.

Because turtle eggs take an average of 60 days to incubate, the eggs aren't moved until after they've been in the nest for 50 days, so the turtles are more developed and hardier. The fragile eggs are packed into sand-filled coolers, which fit snugly into pallets that have shock absorbers attached.

Eglin's wildlife managers expect more eggs before the nesting season ends in August.

"On average, we get approximately 24 nests per year," said Erica Laine, Jackson Guard's Volunteer Program manager. "However, so far this year we are well below our average."

Although at home in the ocean, sea turtles are tied to the land because females must leave the water to lay their eggs in a sandy beach. Being a threatened species on a federal installation means Eglin is required by law to protect the turtles, and more than 40 volunteers help manage and document annual nesting. Threatened status means the species is likely to become endangered.

It is believed that sea turtles return to the beaches where they were born to lay their eggs. Nesting typically occurs every two to three years. A female can lay as many as three to five nests within a nesting season at about 13-day intervals. Most sea turtles lay anywhere from 80 to 140 eggs per nest. The best scientific estimates available indicate only one in 1,000 hatchlings will survive anywhere from 20 to 50 years to become an adult sea turtle.