Turtles For All

My wife mentioned to me they were releasing a turtle on Higgs Beach and as I was in town off I went. To join several milling dozens of my closest neighbors who also had the same idea.

I saw the turtle en route to the event meandering along back streets. In the event they started the show precisely on time.

To give you an idea of how many people were there I never even noticed my friend Robert in his usual public garb  (he has been noticed at city commission meetings too) but according to an Instagram account I follow he was there:

You had to pick your section of beach with care if you were there  just to catch a few rays:

I put myself in ...a strategic position with the sun at my back and waited

....and watched, noting the purpose built t-shirt, ready for the event scheduled for kick off at 9:30 yesterday:

And at 9:33 there was a frisson in the crowd as word rippled through the assembled masses that the star of the show had appeared.

And equally promptly recording devices of all kinds also popped up, including my FZ1000:

This was no iPhone Fest, this was an event that called out the pros who got ringside seats, as they should:

The able volunteers in lime green shorts  lined the route to the sea:

We were addressed, somewhat inaudibly by a representative of the Turtle Hospital, and as WS Gilbert described the Lord High Executioner in a very different stirring tale, was:

A personage of noble rank and title —
A dignified and potent officer
Whose functions are particularly vital!

She was surrounded by young people pushed forward by their parents to see a turtle before it was released. As far as I could tell they were the only ones that could see it as it waited for some peace and quiet at their feet.

It was hot work standing in the sun in one million degrees. On Wednesday the surgeon pronounced me 100 percent fit once again was very nice but I took my cane onto the sand a s a precaution. I was happy to note I could stand and walk on the treacherous surface with no problem.

On and on it went:

Public radio/media was there a callow  youth in button down shirt and long pants looking like he'd lost his business meeting:

And off they went down the beach hauling the rehabbed turtle. I learned on my recent visit to the turtle hospital just how rough it is for them. One in one thousand turtles lives a full adult life. 

I have no idea what happened here, I just spotted the detritus neatly laid out as the masses swarmed to the tide line:

Yup, there's a turtle out there. It popped up and down at random for a while a while and each time they clapped.

I saw the creature with a radio transponder strapped to ts back like a lunch box  for the new pupil on a field trip. But I failed miserably at this wildlife photography test.

We stared at the water for a while...

... and it occurred to me there was a better place to watch from next time, if there is a next time.

Or you could perch like the disinterested  seagulls on the remains of the seawall off Higgs Beach:

To actually see a turtle:

https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2019/08/turtle-hospital-marathon.html

Turtle Beach

It is kind of weird to come to the end of White Street at 2:30 in the morning and find oneself fumbling for the high beam switch on the left handlebar. It's reminiscent of Key West after a hurricane to find the city plunged into darkness.

Parked on Smathers Beach with street lights out all that's left are the headlights of passing cars, or my headlight pointing at the Bridle Path on the inland side of the street. It's turtle nesting season from April 15th to October 31st and as a gesture to help the process along the city dims it's lights. Where there is no beach on South Roosevelt Boulevard, where the seawall fronts salt water directly and without the intercession of sand, street lights and hotels are lit up as normal:The idea is that turtles lay their eggs in the sand and leave them to get on with it. The hatchlings in the fullness of time appear in the sand and are apparently programmed to head for the moonlight reflected on the water. If the moonlight is overwhelmed by human made light inland the hatchlings will head for that instead: Because turtles are endangered lots of human changes have been made to help them along. Commercial fishermen have turtle excluder devices built into their nets which allow turtles to escape drowning (and fish too the fishermen complain). In Key West we dim our lights:

It's one of those gestures that help us believe there is good in the world and we can be part of it. But even though a dark beach is a thing of beauty, a darkened street can be rather nerve wracking, to my surprise.I read about the black out in World War Two England and it seems in their attempts to deny targets to night time bombing they inadvertently created a perilous situation for drivers and pedestrians in their darkened cities. Apparently the accident rate shot up even though fewer vehicles were on the roads and streets owing to war time restrictions. Trundling around our darkened beaches I am not at all surprised.

So, in the end this is what it looks like along the southern shores of Key West, anywhere there is a beach where a turtle could land make a nest. Dark in a good cause.