 TURTLE WALKS: LONG-RUNNING SHOW NEVER FAILS TO THRILL Miami Herald -- Sunday, June 3, 2001 By: Phil Long, Miami Herald Staff Reporter SEBASTIAN INLET STATE PARK -- On quiet moonlit beaches, far from Orlando's high-tech theme parks and pools full of splashing whales, unfolds one of Florida's most awesome, mysterious and oldest attractions. It is summer, time for turtle walks. Here, giant sea turtles return each summer, lumber slowly up the sand to a safe place, spend hours digging the perfect nest and lay their eggs. Last year, sea turtles made more than 84,000 nests on Florida's Atlantic beaches, the largest of only a handful of nesting grounds in the world. This is a show about the survival of one of the oldest species on the planet. It's been running for millions of years. To watch is an almost religious experience, one that makes the soul want to applaud. For 22 years, Terry O'Toole has been leading turtle walks, telling turtle tales and interpreting the mystery. O'Toole is a ranger at Sebastian Inlet State Park, one of 13 organizations from Fort Lauderdale to Melbourne that will sponsor turtle walks this summer. For the protection of the gentle sirens of the sea, state law strictly regulates turtle walks, O'Toole cautions. Only state-certified people can lead them and usually the groups are no larger than two dozen. Because sea turtles are protected, people who go out on their own and are caught near nesting turtles are subject to prosecution and fines. Most walks happen only a few times a week. Each of the 13 approved turtle walks on the Atlantic coast has different schedules and reservations are required for all of them. Indian River and Brevard counties have the most dense concentration of nests, making those among the most desired. O'Toole, like leaders in most of the other walks, starts the evening's program at 9 p.m. The crowd assembles at the park's new museum of Florida fishing, located not 100 yards from the swift-flowing inlet. O'Toole starts with a slide show and discussion of the history and future of sea turtle nesting. He carefully explains the differences in the three kinds of turtles that nest: loggerheads, green sea turtles and leatherbacks. While O'Toole conducts his mini-class, scouts with two-way radios go up and down the beach watching for "crawls," the turtle's distinctive tracks across the sand. MIDNIGHT CRAWLS Sometimes scouts find a turtle immediately and nearby. Sometimes, they don't see the first crawl until near midnight and a mile or so up the beach. About a quarter of the time, there are no turtles at all. Nights when the moon is brightest are the best for watching, O'Toole said, but rainy nights bring more turtles. O'Toole leads his groups very quietly toward the turtle. If she is still digging, the group waits. If the group approaches too early, the turtle may return to the sea without laying. Once she starts laying, O'Toole said, virtually nothing will stop her until she drops her eggs -- usually about 110 -- and she covers them carefully with sand. They'll hatch in 55-60 days and the beach will be alive with scurrying critters about the size of a 50-cent piece. Over a season, depending on predation, nearly eight million will crawl from the nests. They'll have a 1-in-5,000 chance of surviving. "We always let the youngest person in the group name the turtle," O'Toole said, adding that he has been impressed with how much young folks already know about turtles and the beach environment. Once a youngster picked up a piece of clear plastic on the beach and correctly told the group that turtles love jelly fish and can mistake floating plastic for jelly fish. The purpose of all the protection, explains state turtle expert Blair Witherington, is to keep humans from altering the nesting habits. It's for that reason that most communities ban direct lighting on beaches during the nesting season. "You don't want to approach the turtle at all," Witherington said. "If you can see the turtle, she can see you." How would you like people staring at you in such a moment? Last year, there were 84,466 nests on the east coast of Florida. Researchers are not sure how many different turtles there were because the same turtle makes several nests. Of the 84,466, 75,685 were loggerheads, 8,335 were green sea turtles and 446 were leatherbacks. A BREEDING ODDITY This year, there will likely be very few green sea turtle nests because greens have a biennial breeding cycle and for some unknown reason it falls on even-numbered years. In 1999 there were only 474 green sea turtle nests in Florida, compared to 8,335 in 2000. Turtles often mate with several males. They lay clutches of about 110 eggs at a time, several times during the summer. Last year, one turtle, tracked by a radio transmitter, hung around the Sebastian Inlet area for more than a month, laying eggs seven times. Then she swam nearly 150 miles north, only to return to the same beach area for an eighth nesting before she took off north for the year. O'Toole works inside the Archie Carr Refuge, a just over 20-mile stretch of federally protected beach named for one of this country's most famous turtle researchers, much of which is owned by state, federal or local entities. The park has federal permission for four turtle walks a week, but state environmental officials allow only two within the Sebastian Inlet State Park. Walt Disney World Resort on the ocean in nearby Wabasso offered to be the marshaling point of two other turtle walks. Many of the people on those walks are resort guests. Others arrive early and have dinner at the resort, then attend the turtle walk. If you go turtle-watching, leave your flash camera behind. Any kind of lighted photography is forbidden. But bring your romantic side. Bring your appreciation of things enduring. TURTLE WALK APPROVED LOCATIONS
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