Your daily dose of turtle cuteness

Every Monday you will find me volunteering at the turtle yard.  I look forward each week to seeing how our patients are doing, and how they have improved.  I also look forward to learning when they will be released.  Last week we released two Loggerhead sea turtles named Krebster and Dr. Paul.  Turtle releases are quite the event, so if you ever get the chance, I definitely encourage you to go. They can be short lived, depending on how fast the turtle slides back into the ocean, but it's so fun waiting for them to arrive, watching the hospital staff place the turtle in the sand, and then waiting for the turtle to smell the warm salty ocean and go!!!  It's always a little sad to me, I think that's the mom in me, because I just want them to be safe and live to be 100. 

Yesterday we had lots of hatchlings. Hatchings end up at our facility for a few reasons.  They could get washed back and not have enough energy to get out to the seaweed sea where they will live for several years (at this point they are called wash backs not hatchlings), or they could get distracted by white lights from cars, houses or cell phones.  People bring them to us, we make sure they are strong enough to be released, then we release them each night.  Sometimes they even get a boat ride out to the sargasm sea (this is a real place, the only sea not bound by land).  Their swim to the seaweed could be anywhere from 5-10 miles.   Anyways, today I wanted to share a bit of my turtle life with you instead of a card.  So I am sharing pictures of the hatchlings.  Aren't they super cute?  Two of the little turtles got caught holding flippers, but in reality they are very solitary animals in the sea.  It's not like in Finding Nemo where they all swim together.  Sad but true.  I guess they like it that way.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the hatchlings today.  If you would like to learn more about our rehabilitation of the sea turtles, please visit our site marinelife.org.  You can also follow any of the sea turtles that are currently being tracked by clicking on their picture.