NSU Horizons Fall 2010

14 horizons Academic Notes Imagine if you are a tiny sea turtle— about the size of a credit card with petite flippers. You’ve just hatched from a nest on Hollywood Beach, Florida. Your mother is long gone, and in order to have a chance to survive, you must follow the light and make it to the ocean. What stands in your way are natural predators and humans, whose urbanization of Broward County’s coastline has created myriad artificial lights that confuse your sense of direction, causing you to head to the road instead of the ocean. If you end up on the road, your chance of being crushed by a moving vehicle is great. Here’s where more than 20 students at Nova Southeastern University’s Oceano- graphic Center (OC) come to your rescue. From March to October—turtle nesting and hatching season—OC students work feverishly to relocate thousands of turtle nests to coastal areas with less light pollution from street lamps, cars, buildings, and billboards. Like clockwork, OC students get up before dawn, hop on their ATVs, and search for endangered turtle nests. Once the nests are located, the students relocate them to safer, alternative sites. For more than two decades, OC students have been running the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program, which aims to give the little reptiles a better chance to survive. “We make a difference by getting more turtle hatchlings into the water,” said Laura Wright, an OC student who is the program’s project manager. “It’s a great job that allows us to do a lot of fieldwork and conserve these animals.” Survival, Wright said, is bleak for baby sea turtles. Scientists estimate that between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 10,000 sea turtles make it from the nest to adulthood. Too many lights near the shoreline are part of the reason why their survival rates are low. “Our beaches are illuminated, and the turtle hatchlings are programmed to crawl toward the most lit skyline,” said Curtis Burney, Ph.D., an OC associate profes- sor and principal investigator of the turtle program. “Before people, the most lit skyline was toward the ocean.” The baby turtles also face many other obstacles. They are a tasty snack for raccoons, foxes, and sea birds. Those lucky enough to reach the water face predators such as fish and other marine animals, lurking in shallow water looking for an easy meal. The turtles are also susceptible to hurricanes, which wash their nests out to sea, and human poach- ers, who take turtle eggs for consumption as delicacies. The turtle program’s goal is to save three species of sea turtles: the green sea turtle, leatherback turtle, and loggerhead turtle. All three are on the endangered species list. The turtles would have a better chance for survival if more people knew about their plight. As part of their work, the OC students educate the public about the turtles at the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Dania Beach, Florida. They also release some hatchlings into the ocean for the public to see. “The students are making a difference,” Burney said. For more information on the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program, visit www.nova.edu/ocean/seaturtles /index.htm. n On Turtle Patrol By Ken Ma