Incredible Journey
Connie Bransilver
Every year from May through October, sea turtles, mostly loggerheads (Caretta caretta), return to Florida's sandy beaches to lay their eggs. (About half of the world's dwindling population of loggerhead turtles nest in Florida.) Early every morning, environmental workers drive all-terrain vehicles along the beach, looking for telltale drags-the tracks of the female turtle as she comes ashore-checking for a newly laid clutch, marking the nest and adding it to that beach's count. On some beaches, they put wire mesh around the nest to protect it from predators-raccoons and foxes, mostly, although human beach-goers have also been known to destroy nests.

Two months later, if high water has not drowned the nest and no predators have emptied it, about 100 hatchlings will emerge during the night to scuttle toward the sea. Some will not survive even that short journey, as hungry birds and other predators pick them off. In the open sea, they will face a host of equally deadly enemies, from birds and fish to pollution, jet skis and boats.

Only about one in 1,000 turtles will grow to maturity to return to coastal waters to breed after spending about 10 years in deep-sea seaweed forests. Males never return to land; but after mating in shallow waters, the females will drag themselves onto their natal beach to nest. Each female will lay two or three clutches in one season. Then, two years later, she will return and nest again.

Once sea turtles roamed the sea by the millions. Now populations have declined drastically, largely due to human activity. But in recent years, a number of protective laws have increased the chances for survival for Southwest Florida's sea turtles. Shrimp nets, which once trapped and drowned many turtles, now are designed with openings large enough for loggerheads to escape. During nesting season, bright lights are prohibited along the coast, since they can disorient hatchlings, causing them to approach the artificial lights instead of the moonlit Gulf. It's also illegal to leave obstructions such as lounge chairs on the beach, or to rake the sand for routine maintenance.

Still, sea turtles continue to face stiff odds. And that's probably because, as U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Terry Doyle points out, "Prime turtle nesting sites are also prime real estate." Beachfront development and recreation hinder successful nesting and make efforts to preserve nests in such uninhabited areas as the Ten Thousand Islands (which Doyle oversees) even more important.

But for anyone lucky enough to see a hatchling stumble toward the sea at dawn, or to encounter a full-grown leviathan swimming by moonlight toward the shore where she was born, those efforts are a small price to pay to ensure the survival of these magnificent creatures.