A leatherback sea turtle, the largest living reptile in the world (about six and a half feet long and almost 2,000 lbs), made its way onto the shore at Carolina Beach early Wednesday morning. It spent about an hour or so on the beach to lay its eggs and then headed back to the seas.The Star-News reports that while no one actually saw the leatherback turtle, Carolina Beach police Officer Wray Lefler found tracks measuring more than 6 feet across. He called Nancy Busovone of the Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project to alert her of the tracks. Upon inspecting the nest, Busovone identified decoy eggs left on top of the nest and determined that it belonged to a leatherback sea turtle.
It must have been an amazing sight just to have seen the tracks. Busovone told the Star-News that it "looked like a small tractor had come up the beach." She likened the visit to "an elephant wandering around on the beach and no one seeing it."
Leatherback sea turtles are endangered species but staff and volunteers with the Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project will do their part to keep the species around a bit longer. The nest area is currently blocked off with caution tape and in about six weeks, "volunteers will stand by around the clock waiting for a sign of eggs hatching so they can help guide the baby turtles safely into the sea."
Female leatherback sea turtles lay about 100 eggs per nest and babies will grow up to be as long as six and a half feet and weigh almost 2,000 pounds.
To read the full article from the Star-News, please visit:
www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090708/ARTICLES/907089954
For more information about sea turtles, please visit:
www.SeaTurtleProject.org
www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/leatherback.htm
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