We were back over at the Kennedy Space Center this week. The weather and wave conditions had finally combined to give us flat seas and clear skies. The bathymetry survey that we had tried to conduct 3 weeks ago, but had to scrub due to engine failure, was finally on.I got to go because, at the same time, we were making adjustments to the dune monitoring camera that we had installed back in April. That April day when we installed the camera was the day the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.
Wednesday evening we had dinner with Jon, a marine biologist at NASA in charge of numerous projects on the Space Center. Jon made us an offer Kara and I could not refuse... There was a load of sea turtle eggs arriving the next morning. Refugees from the Gulf of Mexico. Would we like to see them unload the next boxes?
A little background: The northern Gulf of Mexico beaches are nesting grounds for several species of endangered sea turtles. As part of a joint effort by NASA, FWS, FL FWCC, NPS and FedEx, turtle nests are being moved from the oiled or threatened beaches to the Kennedy Space Center, where the turtles are being released after they hatch. 30 nests arrived Thursday... more then 700 nests will be rescued. Most are loggerhead nests, but they including leatherback, green, and Kemp Ridley turtle nests as well.
Jane Provancha is the lead biologist on the project. She told us that initially, they didn't know how successful the project would be. So everyone involved kept things quiet. If moving the nests was unsuccessful, there would have been a lot of criticism of the effort. The nests are excavated 45 days after they are laid. This gives the embryos time for critical development, including attaching to their shell, orienting themselves and for their sex to be determined, which is a function of the nest temperature early in incubation. After that 45 day period, the next is carefully excavated. Each egg must be individually lifted out and placed in the styrofoam nest box. Then they are covered with sand. If the egg is turned over, the embryo will detached from the shell and die. If the box was rotated too quickly when being moved, the torque could detach the embryo from the shell. If the egg is jostled too much, the embryo might try to hatch prematurely, and die. If the temp for the nest becomes too hot or too cool, and they would loose the whole nest. There were many, many factors that could endanger the survival of the hatchlings.
FedEx donated the time and trucks for this project. They use a special critical care vehicle, climate controlled and stabilized, with special racks inside to hold the nest boxes. Currently two shipments of nest boxes are arriving weekly. But this is just the beginning of the hatching season. Soon they will be getting 3 to 4 shipments a week and in August they may get them 7 days a week.
The next boxes are begin kept in an old, previously unused, building on the Space Center grounds. The building is kept at 80-89°F. No pictures are allow for security reasons, and to not disturb the hatchlings. These photos are from NASA's website. My shutter finger was twitching the whole time, but I was good and didn't even get my camera out. Then someone handed me a NASA camera and I went to town, not that I could keep any of the shots. There is more information on the project click here.
When we got there, one of the tech showed us two boxes from a nest that had been rescued. During that night the eggs had hatched. Resting quietly in there temporary home where about 2 dozen three-inch long hatchlings. They had emerged from their shells, burrowed out of the sand were waiting for their chance to make a break for the ocean... which would require some help from the staff. They were covered with a black cloth to keep them quiet. Later that night they would be released somewhere on the Space Center's 100 miles of natural beaches, where other turtles lay their own nests every year. Wednesday night the staff had released 120 hatchlings.
I asked Jane what their survival rate was. In nature, 15-20% of a nest's hatchlings might survive to get to the water. Fewer then that survive to adulthood. These nest boxes are hatching at a rate of 85-95% survival.No one is sure what will happen to these turtles. Like salmon, a sea turtle will return to the beach it was born on. These little guys were laid on a Gulf beach, born in a box, and will be released into the Atlantic. Jane couldn't tell us if they would someday return to the beaches of the Space Center, or somehow make their way back to the beaches in the Gulf. Researchers think that turtles imprint the magnetic signature of the beach where they originate from, but no one knows when that happens. Did they imprint the Gulf of Mexico, or will they imprint the Space Center? They aren't doing anything to track these turtles. They are simply being released when they hatch, with well wishes and hopes for a long life. No one knows if they will return to the Space Center to lay their eggs.
Maybe this year more of the hatchlings will survive to adulthood, because more of them made it to the water. Their chances of survival in the Gulf this year were estimated to be near zero. Thanks to the dedication of the biologists at NASA, FWS, FWCC, and NPS, as well as Fedex, all those hatchlings will make it to the water, clean water next to oil free beaches. After that, they are on their own. But at least this year, these little guys will have a fighting chance...For More Information Visit...
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/turtles.html
For more pictures...
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=27
NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
ReplyDeleteU.S. FWS - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
FL FWCC - Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
NPS - U.S. National Park Service