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GULF SHORES – Recently at the Gulf State

Park a group of people sat in the sand in

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chairs around a unique device emitting

scuffling sounds into the gloam.

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“Those are people,” said Gulf State Park

Naturalist Kelly Reetz. “That’s

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somebody’s feet. When you listen to it

enough, you can tell the difference in the

sounds.”

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The group was bunched up as if at a lazy

beach fire on a summer evening,

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but they had come to witness a

prehistoric event.

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It’s sea turtle hatching season on the

Gulf Coast, and the sounds were coming from a turtle-detection

device.

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“It has a long wire and a microphone,”

Reetz said. “You stick the microphone down in the sand. That way

everybody can sit around and listen without everybody running up

and checking the nest. We’re only allowed to listen with a

stethoscope, one person every once in a while. So this allows

everybody to hear what we are hearing, especially for the

children.”

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This particular nest held about 118

eggs, and by 9 p.m. six of the babies had made it to the water’s

edge in a trench dug by volunteers.

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The volunteers watch and help the baby

turtles along on their journey to the surf. By morning 111 of the

new sea turtles had hatched and headed into the

Gulf.

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Reetz says the Share the Beach

volunteers are invaluable in the process.

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“Our volunteers work very closely with

our team leaders,” she said. ”They

"font-family:">monitor what’s going on, they monitor the nest. We

know when the nest was laid, so we count 55 days and then really

start to monitor it until it starts to hatch.

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“The volunteers monitor it and there are

signs we look for when it

"font-family:">happens. The volunteers, they walk the beach every

day for four months and part of the reward of walking the beach and

doing this volunteer work is they get to watch the

hatches.”

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Hatches and post-hatch nest excavations

offer a chance to inform the public about the importance of sea

turtle preservations. Neither are public events, per se, due to the

sensitivity of the nests and therocess. But inevitably the curious

are attracted by the wave of green shirts and gaggle of those

sitting around in the dark in chairs.

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Soon, they are oohing and ahhing over

the baby turtles.

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Rachel Bobo, a freelance photographer

who lives in Orange Beach part time, was one of those in awe. She

also supplied the accompanying photos.

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“I had the thrill of a lifetime last

night,” she said. "I got to see baby sea turtles hatching. The

miracle of life never gets old, does it? We all milled around and

talked and anticipated this event, just as if we were at the

hospital in a labor and delivery waiting

room.”

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Tim Hopper of Benton, Ark. was visiting

the Gulf State Park Pier and recalled seeing one of the hatches

right outside his condo balcony.

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“It was probably 150 or 200 people lined

up along that trench watching,” he said. “I think there were 102

hatchlings. My girls were 9 and 7 then, and they got to watch the

whole thing. It was neat to see it. Not a lot of people get to see

that.”

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“It’s like watching National Geographic

while on vacation,” Reetz said.

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Recently Reetz and a Share the Beach

group of volunteers excavated an earlier hatch from an Orange Beach

site.

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The curious drawn in that day were given

an impromptu lesson on sea turtles.

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“It’s very important that we educate the

public so that they know what’s going on and that’s why I was

there,” Reetz said. “Lisa (Graham) couldn’t be there. She was the

team leader. Bill and Bonnie Hanks, team leaders for East Beach,

they came over to dig it up and help with

that.

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“And I did a little education while we

were there. Just teaching people why the turtles come on the beach,

how we're supposed to protect them. How important it is to turn

your lights out. Turtles are disoriented by white light. Cleaning

up their trash and how important that is because the turtles eat it

and they die.”

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This particular nest was laid in

May.

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“The mother turtle came up, she laid her

nest and she kinda walked all over the beach,” Reetz said. “This

was back in late May.”

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She had crawled all over the beach and

then she went back into the water. The nest was moved because she

had laid it too close to the water’s edge. We moved it. The Orange

Beach team did led by Lisa Graham.”

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There were 118 eggs in the nest and 114

hatched and all came out together

"font-family:">(July 24). That Monday night, one more came out and

the nest was silent.

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“Typically 72 hours after the nest

hatches, we dig into it to count the hatched eggs and see why the

others didn’t hatch,” Reetz said. “The other three, two of them

were infertile. When I popped it open there was a yoke, but there

was no development in it at all. The last one had just the hint of

an embryo. We put it all back in the nest

"font-family:">and covered it up. Just reburied

it.”

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From Dauphin Island to the Florida line,

there are about 70 sea turtle nests this season. Reetz says there

can be anywhere from 40 to 75 nests per year, with the average

being about 53.

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Sea turtles nest May

through August and eggs hatch July through October.