Turtle baby boom

After the first turtle nest hatched with only two turtle babies in St. Pete Beach Sunday night, the hatching of the second nest Wednesday night was a turtle baby boom: out of 115 hatchlings, 112 swam into the Gulf.And without the help of volunteers, that number would be much lower.It was a great day for the volunteers who work to protect turtles and turtle nests, locate new ones, and watch over them until the turtles hatch. Almost all the hatchlings were released into the water -- a big reward for those who were at the hatching of nest number two.Nest watch Margo Mastropieri got very little sleep that night. She babysits the nest during nights and patrols the beach on mornings during turtle nesting season. Most of the nests hatch when she is back teaching at George Mason University in Virginia, so Sunday night was special for her: she got to see the first movement of the sand on the nest."It is going to be a good night, we are going to have a lot of baby turtles," Mastropieri said. "Look at them all. It's like a cartoon; they just keep coming and coming."Seven-year-old Olivia Bagmacso came to see the hatchlings with her family."There is more, and they are adorable," she said.Under a red turtle light, Mastropieri and Bruno Falkenstein, a licensed sea turtle patroller, pull the sand away from the nest. The smell of an ammonia odor is in the air, which is an indicator that three eggs did not hatch live turtles.But many more eggs have hatchlings waiting to be led to their new lives on the outside.To help them, the volunteers untangle the sea oat roots that grow thickly in the nest over the 55 days that they incubate, and they gently uncover the Loggerhead turtle hatchlings."This is why is important to keep track of the dates when a nest may hatch," Mastropieri said.Without the help of volunteers the hatchlings would remain trapped in the roots, and they may not have survived, Falkenstein said.One by one, the newly emerged hatchlings, now the size of two fingertips, make it into a Styrofoam box. Each hatchling that is alive gets another smile from the volunteers."You have to be very careful so that you don't hurt their flippers, or else they will be in trouble," he said.By the end of the year, after living in Sargassum grass 100 miles out in the Gulf, they grow to be the size of a plate.The unusually high number of hatchlings is because the nest that was initially too close to high tide area was relocated months ago closer to the sand dunes, Falkenstein said.A baby boom He says this year there will be a turtle baby boom with 20 nests in St. Pete Beach."On the best year, we had 39 nests. This year, we still have a long way to go but we already have 16 nests. Fort De Soto has 40 nests. It looks we are going to have a very good turtle year," he said.When the turtle babies are being released into the water, residents got to help guide them in. It was an event that Rachel Bagmacso will never forget, she says. She came to see something she has never seen before, something her children talked her into: 7-year-old Olivia and 10-year-old Sophia saw the first turtle nest hatching on Sunday and convinced her to come."It's part of our community and we never get to see it," she said. "It's a wonderful experience and my kids love it."The event is also a treat for Margo Mastropieri. She says she got a "turtle addiction" after she had two hip replacements four years ago, and could no longer run on the beach."What I soon realized is that I observed my surroundings more carefully when I walked. During those walks, I always stopped and examined the turtle nests and turtle tracks when I saw them," Mastropieri said.The turtle guy That's how she met Bruno Falkenstein, a licensed sea turtle patroller, who also patrols the beach because of a passion for the turtles. For the two of them, the turtle walks transformed into a friendship and collaboration."Last summer, when I arrived in late May, I happened to be at a nest that he was going to move to a safer location—and I asked if I could wait and watch when he did that. Then I was hooked on the turtles, eggs, and hatchlings," she said.It seemed amazing to Mastropieri that turtles only arrived on land to make nests, and females would come back to the same beach 25-30 years later to lay eggs, and males never came back to land."I am always looking for turtles and turtle nests. They are a prehistoric species, and endangered. They are fun to watch," she said.Falkenstein, who was honored this week for his volunteer work , says sea turtle patrols are a lifelong learning experience."I never get tired of it. Every time, I learn something new," he said. "I thought at the beginning, turtles live on the beach before they go into the water, but then I found out from fishermen that sea turtles swim 100 miles in the water to their sarcasm grass home."And he is happy to share his knowledge with the residents and volunteers.At 11 p.m., the night is not over for Mastropieri, Falkenstein, and other volunteers—they are off to watch out for other turtle nests on St. Pete Beach. They may get a couple of hours of sleep before they rise again at 5 a.m.Falkenstein, who was honored earlier this week for his work, says he wouldn't be able to continue his passion without other volunteers and his family, who backs him up."With the little luck, the four of us will be able to say to our grandchildren that we had a role in saving the sea turtles," he said.At St. Pete Beach, aturtle baby boom115 sea turtles were released intothe GulfSaturday, 01 Aug 2009, 2:41 PM EDTby ANDREA LYPKA / MyFoxTampaBay.com