~This is the third article in a series about our guide Ann’s involvement in Sea Turtle Rescue.~

Siouxzen Whitecloud and I started the 2010 sea turtle season sitting on FT 1 in STOP zone 12, on May 20^th, 2010 (Fort Lauderdale nest #1, Sea Turtle Oversight Protection). I took the early shift (8-12) and she the late (12-4). This timing of course changed with the length of daylight and daylight savings. By October early shift started by 6:00. That was the first nest of the season for Broward County, the first in the five Fort Lauderdale zones and one of only ten Leatherback nests for the county.  We sat on it for almost 4 weeks. It was covered almost all night every night. It never hatched.

My zone was zone 12 running from Las Olas south to Port Everglades, about 3 miles of beach. It was a very well covered zone. First the Leatherbacks DC hatch, then Loggerhead CC, then the greens CM, along with the Loggerheads. I was out almost every night, usually all night from June through October. The amount of endurance that one can muster up is unbelievable. Knowing if we were there the hatchlings would get to the ocean and if we weren’t they would likely end up in A1A, made it hard, if not impossible, to sleep.

Over the next five months Zone 12 put in over 7,000 hatchlings, 3,500 of them were disorienting towards the illegal coastal lighting of Fort Lauderdale beach. Zone 12′s last nest was FT 693 CM. Karen, my main side kick the entire season, was watching it. It dropped about 11:00 and she called me. I raced down. Like with many nests a crowd gathered . . . and waited . . . and waited. It was a great international crowd. Three from Portugal, three from Indiana, three from the Florida Panhandle and the remaining from around here. About 15 total. As the hours past, the children slept on the sand and then at about 3:00a.m. (this was an unusually long time between drop and hatch out) the hatchlings poured out. We counted 83. They had a long distance to the sea and they all scrambled east to the full moon and the ocean. The whole crowd was thrilled to pieces. During the long four hour wait, from the youngest child to the most elderly tourist, not one person had left. It was a great end to a busy season of sleepless nights. . . for zone 12.

After that I shifted up to zone 11 to help Zen with her remaining six green nests. Finally we got to FT 700. It had been laid on my birthday, 9/20. On that night I had been on FT 575 CM when it hatched out on day 54 with 125 hatchlings all racing south, not east to the sea. We had eventually gathered them all, Justin, FWC and me. Justin had gotten great video footage.

So I felt connected to FT 700, but the hatch window is usually 45 to 55 days and we were nearing day 60. Zen and I both agreed to call it off on day 60. And that night came. I did early shift, Zen late. It was Nov 20th, six months to the day since we had sat on FT 1 on May 20th.

This is the email I sent her the next morning: “Yes, what an amazing 6 months, right to the day, May 20th to Nov 20th. I sat with you side by side on FT 1 and then, under a full moon and on cold sand, on FT 700. With a busy journey between these two unhatched nests. It makes my heart ache for the mama and her babies, but hopefully she doesn’t know and the babies will be born again.

Your endurance and strength kept me going and my own endurance, which took me to a new level of being. I thank you both for the opportunity to know and experience this. And the Earth’s endurance. When we work for Her she gives us unending strength.

As I left that night I looked back at you from the median in the street and saw you circling the nest with your red light, searching the sand, one more time. . .”

And so the season ended, so we thought.

The next night the last nest in the Hollywood zone hatched out on day 59 with 90 hatchlings. It was day 61 for FT 700 and neither Zen nor I were watching it. The hatch out of the Hollywood nest proved to me that our cold October snap had not killed the hatchlings, just slowed their development, as we know is the case. Nests in North and South Carolina routinely hatch out at day 60 or later.

I called Richard Whitecloud the next morning and said that I was going back to FT 700 til day 64. He said, “I’ll eat crow”. I said that I would not de-feather it. So I sat on FT 700 on day 62 for 1/2 a night and day 63 for 1/2 a night. At about 11:00 p.m. on day 63 I figured that I would give it up. 90% of the nests in zone 12 had hatched between day 46 and 49, but then it had been much warmer.

But around 6:00 p.m. on day 64 I just couldn’t do it. There was NO reason why this nest had not hatched out. It was not damaged, the wash-overs had occurred late in the development stage, it was a special nest and I felt very, very unsettled about not being there. The season did not seem over. I could not leave it.

I arrived at FT 700 about 7:00 p.m. The near full moon rose about 7:30. This is what we pray for: the full moon with clear skies, it can override a lot of bad coastal lighting. I checked and rechecked the 20′ x 30′ area of beach roped off by NOVA for this last green nest and then sat on my bucket and called my nieces.

At 8:10, while still on the phone, hatchlings began boiling out of the sand. I grabbed my bucked, hurriedly recruited some kids behind me and began to gather the westward bound hatchings. In all about 100 hatchlings emerged with 31 heading west to the traffic of A1A only 20 feet away. All 31 were collected in buckets and released into the sea. Richard came to video tape the event, I called a few folks who had helped watch these last few nest, reported the hatch out to Lou, the other permit holder and finally put my buckets in the car. The season now, was over. This was my post to STOP’s website the next morning:

UPDATE: FT700

At 8:10 on 11/23 and on day 64, green nest FT 700 hatched out with 100 hatchlings. With a near full moon and clear skies about 70 went east, 31 disoriented to the bright lights along A1A only 20 feet to the west. I thank those who watched and reported the 11/20 (day 59) hatch out in Hollywood, as it proved that the hatchlings could survive our few cold nights and kept me at this nest. We still have much to learn about the endurance of these magnificent animals. Perhaps the most important: trust your heart.

STOP’s 2010 Sea Turtle Hatch Result Summary (.pdf)

Below are links to the other articles in the series:

Article 1:

Following Turtle Tracks – The Summer of a Thousand Nights

Article 2:

Following Turtle Tracks – The Summer of Thousand Nights – Part 2