Gulf Restoration Network

Can Florida Save its Sea Turtles? Blog - BPs Oil Drilling Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, 29 June 2010 11:10

The precarious journeys of sea turtle hatchlings in Florida just became more challenging.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is working with NOAA and sea turtle experts to launch an audacious, but necessary plan:  excavate endangered sea turtle nests from panhandle beaches and move them to the east coast to hatch.

This noble gambit is necessary because newly hatched turtles on the gulf side will not survive the swim into the oil and dispersant tainted waters in the Gulf from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil drilling disaster.  Sea turtles are known to travel long distances over their lifetimes and return to their exact beach nesting locations. Not much is known about how the newly hatched sea turtles will react to their new locations, or if they will return to their original or translplanted hatching location.

The Gulf Restoration Network will follow this story.

Darden Rice is GRN's Florida Program Director