I just rescued a baby sea turtle!

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Terrapin's are pretty common in the creeks along the Sound and the Bay's. Kemp's Ridley's show up in the Sound as large juveniles and adults during the summer, but don't normally go into any of the creeks.
 
...and so, another weaker sibling is allowed to survive and marginally weaken the entire species' gene pool!
who knows? in a hundred years, we may manage to weaken them to the point where they can no longer make their way to the ocean on their own!

seriously, well done mate... i'd have done exactly the same!
 
Considering that man made lighting (such as from a Condo) is known to disorient hatchling turtles, it is quite likely nothing to do with being a weaker sibling, but rather just confused from mans interference with nature ;)
 
yea, we have done way too much that disturbs nature. im glad you saved thosed turtles. bender (of futurama) would be proud of you, then steal your wallet. but we truly have been doing too much to our oceans. here's an arguement ive been building. OCEAN ACIDIFICATION! i dont like to follow the global warming fad. i beleive that it is not CO2 thats causing it, i believe it's natural, but that doesnt mean we arent putting out WAY too much CO2. it's all being absorbed by the ocean and slowly turning it acidic. the ENTIRE ocean ph has dropped from 8.3 to 8.2 on average. ph is a logarithmic scale (exponential) so 8.3-8.2 is way bigger than 7.3-7.2. It creates carbonic acid (real property, its part of how co2 is transfered from our own cells to our lungs), but it somehow cancels out calcium ions that are "bio-available". and that means less plankton overall and weaken the shells of anything else with a calcium carapace which could ruin the ENTIRE ecosystem of the ocean.

now think about that while i catch my breath (metaphorically).
 
But to have a future as a species in a world full of people- shouldn't we allow species to naturally adapt to our unnatural interferences? Strictly speaking, the individuals that will most positively contribute to the future preservation of their species will be those that thrive despite manmade distractions..

Like zeusfc said, well done, I would have done the same :) but I think theoretically it is more important that the gene pool be strong. For the sake of argument :)
 
yum-eeeeeeee.......

2636.jpg
 
and yea oceanodroma, i have thought about just animals evolving naturaly to us, but i do think the oceans are pretty cool how they are now. and we're screwin it up. we are paving the way for a diatom and kelp only ocean.
 
I vacation on the outer banks once a year in the town of Avon. Normally when we go down, we'll see a few sea turtle nest sites that get roped off. THis year there were so many and there were even plastic "fences" up so the turtles wouldn't be disturbed by people or cars and could get down to the ocean. I had no problem with a little bit of beach taken up but my family didn't seem to understand that they were endangered and that losing the species would mess up a lot of things. Also, some jerkoff in Rodanthe went and stomped on a nest for no reason other than to vandalize it.

I would have done the same thing, no matter what fine would get slapped on me. I think the fines are more in place to keep people from needlessly handling them or harming them than those that are doing their best to not harm them and wanting to help them.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13134048#post13134048 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greenbean36191
I wouldn't assume it hatched the night before. It's more common to hatch at night, but they can emerge at any time. It's not that unusual for a few from a nest to come out during the day. I've actually seen at least two nests hatch at midday and it's frequently filmed for documentaries since daytime hatches are easier to film.

Also, FWIW as nice as it is to help the turtles down to the water, it's actually a violation of endangered species laws (state and federal) and could result in MAJOR fines, jail time, and confiscated property. If you see them again, it's fine to watch, but don't touch. If they're headed the wrong way or they're obviously lost, call the FWC.

It's thought that the crawl down to the beach is important for imprinting and the ability of the turtle to return to the same beach to lay its eggs. Carrying them down to the water may prevent them from being able to home back to where they hatched.
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I'm actually a police officer and former marine patrol officer so I don't think anyone would be giving me a hard time for touching the turtle to bring him to the ocean. I'm not worried about any fines for doing so. I also would not cite anyone who did the same.
It's good judgement. Besides, he could have gotten eaten by a seagull or attacked by the numerous stray cats in the area.I think you would have done the same. And the FWC has more important things to do than to respond to my home for 1 or 2 baby turtles that they would just release to the ocean anyway.
As a fellow law enforcement officer, I'd never waste their time to do so. I appreciate the info but I think it's a bit far fetched that the FWC would cite someone ,arrest or confiscate anything for doing what I did. Now if I tried to keep the turtle or injure it, that is a different story.
 
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In the same situation, I have never done the same thing and wouldn't do it given the chance again. There's just no need to do anything more than post watch for predators unless the turtle is clearly disoriented and it's thought that picking them up does more harm than good.

And no, you aren't bothering the FWC by calling them to tell them about disoriented turtles. They request that you do exactly that. Many of them are scientists, not LEOS. They have people who work specifically to record data about hatch rates, disoriented hatchlings, and other data about nests and hatchlings. These people very much appreciate hearing any reports since it helps with their research.
 
Well whatever. I helped out 2 turtles, that's all that matters.It was pretty cool and I would do it again in a second.
I guess I have no insight as to how it all works since I work close with the FWC and have done marine patrol duties myself. But I'll just take your expert word for it since you seem to know it all.
Oh on a lighter note, I like your member photo. If that was really you in the photo, I wouldn't dare argue with ya...lol.
 
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