Six baby green sea turtles head to North Carolina

Now there are six.

Three baby green sea turtles hatched Dec. 6, and will join three other siblings and dozens of remaining turtle eggs as they journey Wednesday morning, Dec. 7, to North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores where specialists in turtle care await.

"They're the experts and can give them the best care," said Suzanne Thurman, executive director of Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute, a nonprofit group that's been caring for the eggs since they were first discovered Aug. 18 off Herring Point in Cape Henlopen State Park.

The clutch of eggs was the first documented sighting of a green sea turtle nest along the Delaware shores.

Volunteers moved the nest of 194 eggs duneward because the mother turtle laid them too close to the shore, and incoming tides would have destroyed them. Next they survived Hurricane Irene and a following tropical storm that blew nearly two feet of sand onto the nest. Then, when temperatures dropped in early October, volunteers decided to move the eggs to the University of Delaware College of Earth, Ocean and Environment in Lewes where they were placed in a climate-controlled room.

MERR volunteers monitoring the eggs discovered the first hatchlings Nov. 4 after weeks of waiting for signs of life.

"I've been so happy that I didn't have to report bad news," Thurman said. "It's been a heart-warming story."

The green sea turtle is protected as an endangered species in Delaware. Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control biologist Edna Stetzar of the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species program said the details of the trip are being finalized with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The commission’s Sea Turtle Project will take custody of the turtles and eggs at the North Carolina University Marine Lab. From there, Thurman said, a charter boat will take the baby turtles out to sea where they will be released into the Gulf Stream. The baby turtles will swim on Gulf Stream currents to the Sargasso Sea, a nutrient-rich area where they will eat and rest before making their way to warmer waters.

Related story see

http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/news/story/update-baby-sea-turtles-hatch/190145