Eight little turtles

When sea turtles fail to make it out of their nest, it’s not the end for them just yet. A team of scientists rescues them and then charges a spit load* of money for people to come and learn about turtles, see the baby turtles up close, and go out in the pitch dark to watch them scuffle their way out to sea.

THINGS I LEARNED…
…at our Girl Scout visit to the Margory Stoneman Douglas Nature Center at Crandon Park for baby sea turtle release.

1. A PowerPoint presentation can be really interesting, even if it’s got a horrible design. The key is interesting CONTENT and cute baby turtle pictures. (See how engrossed these 10 year olds are?)

2. No, you can’t touch the turtle. No matter how desperately you want to or how convincingly you ask.

3. Sea turtles smell bad.

4. When not in sand, baby sea turtles move a lot and are really hard to grab focus on.

5. When IN sand, baby sea turtles are as slow as molasses. Especially the ones who have been put on display for the group and posed for pictures. I could tell which they were because they were NOT interested in heading out to the water, no matter how it beckoned them. (The red light guides them toward the ocean, as the moon would; it’s not strong enough to confuse them and misdirect them.)

6. Taking pictures in the pitch dark is HARD.

7. Even pollution can be art. (But it would be nice if we didn’t NEED to restate the ‘don’t pollute’ message. Isn’t it a no-brainer? Don’t leave your stuff behind. Leave the beach cleaner than you found it.)

Where’s the pirate toy? Right there.

 

This was a great adventure, and since proceeds help rescue the endangered sea turtles, it’s okay if they charge a spit load* of money for it. This would have been even cooler, however, if my kids hadn’t happened upon a hatching nest of sea turtles the week before, while at the beach with their grandparents. I mean, they saw the HATCHING. How freaking cool is that? No photos of that event, but I bet they never forget it!

* This is a family blog. Yes, spit load.