Hot Chicks, Cool Dudes

Who knew that nesting temperature determined a sea turtle's gender?  

 

The turtles clamber ashore to bury their eggs.  If they incubate at a temperature below 82 degrees Fahrenheit, males will emerge; above 90 degrees brings forth females,  although survival of either gender is far from assured due to a variety of predators on land and in the ocean eager to make a meal of the hatchlings.

A tour Florian and I took one afternoon at the unprepossessing Loggerhead Marine Life Center in Juno Beach taught us about that biological oddity and more.

Our guide, while competent, wasn't the kind who encouraged questions.  She ignored me when I asked "Does that mean males will be eliminated by global warming?" perhaps because answering honestly in one of America's wealthiest areas--where greed trumps environmental concerns--has political implications.  Surprisingly, the National Ocean Service website still says yes.

A skull display identified the sea turtles indigenous to Florida.

Leatherbacks can grow longer than six feet and weigh up to 2,000 pounds if they make it, and live longer than 50 years.

The center operates as a rehab facility.  During our visit more than 20 young turtles had been flown in from Cape Cod where, unfamiliar with southern migration routes, they had washed up on the chilly shore.  Many had pneumonia. 

Once released from the hospital, they recover in these outdoor tanks, shaded from the sun.

Patients are marked with names chosen according to different themes, like Greek mythology.  Chronos personifies time.  More of it, in his lucky case.

The guide acknowledged that captivity can be stressful, even during recovery.  In the natural world, the turtles range over thousands of miles along the Atlantic Coast, catching a ride on the Gulf Stream when migrating north but swimming south on their own.

An encounter with a boat propeller likely chopped off one of this poor loggerhead's flippers. They have a bite force of 500 pounds per square inch, about twice that of pit bulls, the dog breed that caused so much anxiety when I worked at the ASPCA in the '80s.   The force increases with age, allowing them to chow down on entrees with hard shells, like crab and conch.

Juveniles get numbered, not named.  Some spend years maturing in the Sargasso Sea, where sargassum--the same seaweed that has to be bulldozed off Lake Worth Beach--provides excellent camouflage from sharks.

Once the center nurses the turtles back to health, they are released, sometimes privately, sometimes publicly with the knowledge and consent of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

How do you measure up?

Neon-bright fish swam in a nearby aquarium.

The very scenic Jupiter Lighthouse, a few miles north, was closed by the time we arrived.