The Lost Loggerheads!!!

 I read news from the Turtle Patrol that the first Loggerhead turtle nest has been found for the season!  I decided to learn more about these beautiful animals. Mamas make the laborious journey from the ocean to the dunes to dig and fill their nests each season. On average, they lay anywhere from 100 - 126 eggs! They return to the ocean never knowing whether their eggs hatched and if the hatchlings survived. In Florida, there are Turtle Patrols that monitor the nests and keep watch over them. When the hatchlings come up out of the nest, they make sure as many as possible make it back to the ocean. What I did not know is that the first year of the hatchlings' lives, the enter a "lost" phase where they simply drift with the movement of the ocean. Many of them stay within sargassum blooms. Sargassum is a floating algae that forms a bit of protection for the hatchlings. The hatchlings also have plenty to eat as there are many small crustaceans that live in the sargassum blooms. They float along like this for years until they are juveniles and return to the open ocean. This practice also hides them from predators! Isn't nature fascinating!  To learn more, watch the YouTube video or click the image below!



 

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