Pictures: Baby Gulf Turtles Released Into Atlantic

Digging for Turtle Eggs

Photograph courtesy Bonnie Strawser, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Federal workers remove sea turtle eggs from a nest in Alabama's Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge on June 27.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently began arranging the relocation of some 70,000 rare sea turtle eggs from 700 Gulf Coast nests in the path of the BP oil spill. All seven of the world's sea turtle species—four of which nest in the Gulf—are considered threatened or endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

(Gulf Oil Spill Pictures: Birds, Fish, Crabs Coated.)

If left alone, Gulf sea turtle hatchlings—which crawl through sand layers to leave their underground nests—could get injured or killed through contact with buried oil on their way out to sea, said Riley Hoggard, a resource-management specialist for Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Many turtles annually nest on the protected seashore, which includes sites in both Florida and Mississippi. (See sea turtle pictures.)

In part to address such threats, the babies were hatched in a special facility in a warehouse at eastern Florida's Kennedy Space Center and are being released on several Atlantic Ocean beaches throughout summer 2010—on the other side of the state from the Gulf.

—Christine Dell'Amore

Published July 22, 2010

Leatherback Egg-Layer

Photograph by Steve Winter, National Geographic

The largest sea turtle species, the leatherback sea turtle (above, a female laying eggs in Costa Rica) is one of five sea turtle species that nest on Gulf of Mexico beaches.

Each summer, under the cover of night, female sea turtles climb onto beaches, dig holes with their flippers, deposit clutches of eggs, and return to Gulf waters.

About two months later, the hatchlings break out of the eggs, pop out of the sand, and make a quick scramble back to the Gulf to continue the life cycle.

Published July 22, 2010

Eggs in One Basket

Photograph courtesy Bonnie Strawser, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The U.S. effort to relocate the sea turtle eggs—such as these removed from a nest in Alabama's Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge on June 27—hinges on an understanding of the turtles' internal magnetic "maps," Hoggard said.

These maps—apparently "tuned" to Gulf beaches during incubation—should point the animals back to their native Gulf waters, even with the entire Florida Peninsula in their way, he said.

But he admits the massive sea turtle rescue operation is "uncharted territory" and could fail. "We can't afford to lose a generation of them," he said. "That's what gnaws at your stomach."

(See related pictures of a bird rookery "devastated" by oil.)

Published July 22, 2010

Turtle-Egg Protection

Photograph courtesy Denise Rowell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists Dianne Ingram, left, and Lorna Patrick observe excavated sea turtle eggs in a temperature-controlled container in Port St. Joe, Florida, in a recent picture.

In addition to direct contact with oil, turtles and their eggs could be harmed by nighttime oil-spill cleanup operations, according to a statement by the Deepwater Horizon Joint Information Center.

For instance, bright lights, heavy machinery, and foot traffic may all disturb or injure nesting sea turtles. And hatchlings that use the moon as a compass may be disoriented by lights from cleanup crews.

Published July 22, 2010

Turtles in Waiting

Photograph courtesy Kim Shiflett, NASA

The first group of the excavated Gulf sea turtle hatchlings are pictured recently in a Kennedy Space Center warehouse before being released into the Atlantic Ocean off eastern Florida.

The eggs—which take about 60 days to hatch—were allowed to incubate for 50 days in their native nests and spent the remaining 10 in a temperature-controlled warehouse.

(See related video: "'Cold Stunned' Turtles Get NASA Rescue.")

Published July 22, 2010

Into the Wild

Photograph courtesy Kim Shiflett, NASA

Scientists release Gulf of Mexico sea turtle hatchlings onto the beaches of Cape Canaveral, Florida, in a recent picture.

Most of the released babies are loggerhead sea turtles, though some could also be Kemp's ridley sea turtles, leatherback sea turtles, and green sea turtles, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service national sea turtle coordinator Sandy MacPherson said in a statement.

Published July 22, 2010

Intrepid Turtles

Photograph courtesy Kim Shiflett, NASA

The first Gulf sea turtle hatchlings enter the Atlantic Ocean in early summer 2010.

It may be 15 years before these hatchlings mature and return to Gulf waters to nest themselves, Hoggard said—if they do at all.

"We're giving up a whole generation of turtles," he said, "with the hopes that they'll come back."

Published July 22, 2010

Gulin