GULF SHORES, Ala. — Editor’s note: The Islander will be publishing a series of articles about sea turtles and the nesting season, which concludes Oct. 31. Watch for this column throughout the summer, or for more information, log onto alabamaseaturtles.com or fws.com/daphne.

Every year from May through October female sea turtles swim the world’s oceans, migrating home toward the beaches where they were born, continuing an ancient ritual of reproduction.

These nomadic mothers glide through a vast underwater world that once offered their ancestors an abundance of nutrient rich sea grasses, sponges, jellyfish and other key food sources for their prolonged journey over hundreds or thousands of miles.

Charting a course in the 21st Century offers the modern day sea turtle a perilous seascape, harboring thousands of miles of monofilament fishing line and millions of baited hooks.

Plastic bags and balloons pulsate like jellyfish, a lethal temptation along with other pollutants floating throughout their transoceanic route.

Of the seven species of sea turtles in the world, two types may be fortunate enough to reach our coastal waters and emerge from the Gulf of Mexico to nest here on Alabama’s Gulf Coast:

Loggerhead and Kemp’s Ridley, all are protected under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has the lead responsibility for sea turtles when they are ashore. Disturbing nesting females, their eggs or their hatchlings is a felony under the Endangered Species Act.

Sea turtles spend their entire lives at sea, except when mother turtles crawl ashore, some weighing more than 200 pounds, in search of a suitable nesting site. Modern day beaches present a complex obstacle course to navigate through including beach chairs, umbrellas, tents and holes carved and crammed into their sandy path. If they successfully reach the dry sand of the upper beach, the arduous task of digging the egg chamber begins. Each female can lay 100 or more eggs the size of ping-pong balls and will return to the sea after camouflaging the nest with sand. They may repeat this life cycle from one to seven times each nesting season.

The hatchlings incubate for about two months and then emerge from their shells as a group. This mass exodus often occurs in the night. When they emerge, they crawl down the beach toward the brightest horizon, which on a natural beach is toward the sea.

A mere two inches long, baby sea turtles can become disoriented by artificial lights, blocked by beach umbrellas or consumed by predators such as ghost crabs and feral cats. At sea they must survive predators and growing threats from manmade marine debris.

The first six to 12 years of their lives will be spent floating in the open ocean, living in or near sargassum (brown algae), eventually moving to protected bays, estuaries and other near shore waters. They may live to 50 years or more, continuing the cycle of life that, some scientists claim, has been occurring for more than 100 million years.

For the last seven years, a dedicated force of concerned citizens armed with trash bags, cell phones and GPS devices has been scouting our sandy shores in an effort to make our local beaches sea turtle friendly.

The Share the Beach program brings hundreds of volunteers together, each nesting season, to search along the shoreline for sea turtle nests. Since May of this season they have identified 31 nests along Alabama’s Gulf Coast, which they have divided into nine geographic areas totaling over 47 miles from west to east.

In the 2008 season, Share the Beach recorded more 3,520 baby sea turtles successfully reaching the Gulf of Mexico. While some Kemp’s Ridley nests have been identified here, the Loggerhead has by far been the most frequent turtle species to nest along our shores.

Our living shorelines are home to fascinating ecosystems that are a crucial link between the land and sea. Tread lightly on the beaches you explore and lend a helping hand by practicing the following turtle friendly tips:

Joanne McDonough is a Nature Tourism Specialist with The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. Reach her at jmcdonough@gulfshores.com.