Turtle Midwifery and other news

We just got back and settled into the pile of laundry that seems like our house after the week at Carolina Beach with my parents. It had been a couple of years since we had made it on vacation with the whole family, but this summer I'm not working and Brandy flew in from Texas, so it was a no-brainer.

We stayed at a different condo than the usual place, as the "usual place" has been demolished and completely revamped. The new place was a few blocks farther from the downtown/boardwalk scene but it couldn't have been more perfect. Brett and I arrived first and walked down the boardwalk to the beach and right to the side of the boardwalk to the ocean was none other than the telltale orange tape marking a sea turtle nest! Not only was that exciting, but the trench had been dug! Basically, there are groups of volunteers that monitor the sea turtle nests. At some number of days after they were laid, they dig a trench out to the sea, to ease the hatchlings' journey. If there's a trench, it means the nest can hatch any night.

The first night we checked a few times for the turtles, but no such luck. The volunteers called it a night at around 11, and so did we. The next morning the trench was covered in tracks! Clearly we had missed a big hatching. During the day, while we were out boogie-boarding in the awesome waves, 3 more hatched. Sadly 2 didn't make it, since hatching at low tide at 3 in the afternoon isn't really what they're designed for. But we did cheer on the one that did make it! That evening we met up with the volunteers and told them what we'd seen and were heroes since we had witnessed the first one get to the sea (well the first one that could be officially recorded by the aquarium representative). The family all drug our chairs out to the trench and lined up to watch the next hatching. After a while of sitting in the dark whispering (turtles need to hear the ocean and see that it's night time to come out of the nest in best circumstances), everyone but me and Brett bailed. A while later a volunteer took a red light up to the nest and announced a hatching in progress. I quickly roused the troops back at the condo with a phone call and we all got to witness the hatching. Brett and I were given gloves to wear to assist in the hatching and proudly claim midwifery honors. :)

Basically what happens is that the turtles fight their way out of the underground nest and will wander around trying to find their way to the ocean. In order to get them pointed in the right direction and in the water as fast as possible, a trench is dug in the sand. A Nest Mother holds a bright lantern at the end of the trench, simulating the full moon that wasn't at all out that night and drawing the turtles in that direction. Then, midwives (as we like to call ourselves) crawl along each side of the trench and push sand towards the turtles when they try to climb out of the trench. Sometimes they're confused, or one flipper isn't as strong as the other, so without help, they could end up going in circles or parallel to the beach, but our babies made it safely to the water! I'd love to show pictures but there was no light to get them.

A few evenings later the volunteers and aquarium reps dug up the nest. They do this to keep track of how many eggs hatched and because occasionally some stragglers will have hatched and gotten stuck in sea oat roots. Once the turtles hatch they have up to 3 days to make it to the surface and sea before they die, so NC law says that on the 55th day after being laid, when everything should've hatched that was going to, the Aquarium has to dig up the rest and try to save any that were stuck. We of course showed up for that show as well. And what a show it was! Usually a nest will have 2 or 3 live babies and a couple of dead ones as well. Ours had 16 live turtles and no dead ones! They counted the egg shells and there was about a 50-50 hatching rate which is also apparently impressive. Each of the turtles was carefully put in buckets and dropped at the water line to the silent cheers of the crowd that had turned out. Even the one that had just hatched and had one flipper that weak and not yet functional made it successfully to the sea. It was very exciting to watch and even neater to be a part of!

In other news, the waves were perfect for boogie boarding most of the trip. Brandy even tried it for the first time and loved it! It *is* addictive once you get the hang of it. Erin was happier at the condo's pool. I have to agree it was amazing. It was salt water. Not ocean water, but clean water with salt in it. It apparently breaks down the salt into a chlorine and keeps it sterile that way, but without the harsh chemicals that burn your eyes and make my hair green! It also had jets in it. There were seats in corners of the pool, like a hot tub, and general gets around the walls to keep you moving in the water. I found that if I could manage to stay on my floaty raft it made for an excellent lazy-river experience...until Louis turned the pumps on high and dumped me! :D I've never wanted a home pool until now. But wow. Maintenance is nothing and it's so relaxing! I told Brett all we had to do was remodel the entire back end of our house and re-landscape the yard but he didn't seem convinced. :)

Anyway, here are the pics from the trip. Enjoy!