- December 20, 2024
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Turtle Patrol volunteer Lori Ottlein cleans out a loggerhead nest, looking for any remaining hatchlings. Some eggs, like this one, never hatched. Photo by Sierra Williams
A baby loggerhead sea turtle crawls into the surf. Photo by Sierra Williams
The baby sea turtles make their way to the ocean. Photo by Sierra Williams
Baby loggerhead sea turtles. Photo by Sierra Williams
Turtle Patrol volunteer Lori Ottlein cleans out a loggerhead nest, looking for any remaining hatchlings. Photo by Sierra Williams
Turtle Patrol volunteer Lori Ottlein cleans out a loggerhead nest, looking for any remaining hatchlings. Photo by Sierra Williams
Turtle Patrol volunteer Lori Ottlein cleans out a loggerhead nest, looking for any remaining hatchlings. Photo by Sierra Williams
This loggerhead nest had 113 eggs in it, including 9 hatchlings that were still alive. Photo by Sierra Williams
Kris and Michael Phillips watch as Lori Ottlein pulls baby sea turtles from the nest. Photo by Sierra Williams
Turtle Patrol volunteer Lori Ottlein cleans out a loggerhead nest, looking for any remaining hatchlings. Photo by Sierra Williams
Turtle Patrol volunteer Lori Ottlein cleans out a loggerhead nest, looking for any remaining hatchlings. Photo by Sierra Williams
Nine baby sea turtles were found in the loggerhead nest. Photo by Sierra Williams
Nine baby sea turtles were found in the loggerhead nest. Photo by Sierra Williams
Lori Ottlein has been a Turtle Patrol volunteer for 25 years. Photo by Sierra Williams
Lori Ottlein releasea the rescued baby sea turtles onto the beach for them to find their way to the ocean. Photo by Sierra Williams
Nine baby sea turtles were found in the loggerhead nest. Photo by Sierra Williams
A baby loggerhead sea turtle. Photo by Sierra Williams
A baby loggerhead sea turtle. Photo by Sierra Williams
Harrison Wheelan and Taylor Speglevin, with their dogs Buster and Foxy, watch the rescued sea turtles crawl into the surf. Photo by Sierra Williams
Lori Ottlein watches one of the rescued baby loggerhead sea turtles crawl into the ocean. Photo by Sierra Williams
Lori Ottlein watches one of the rescued baby loggerhead sea turtles crawl into the ocean. Photo by Sierra Williams
Lori Ottlein educates children at a sea turtle nest cleaning on July 25. Photo courtesy of Lina Williams
Lori Ottlein educates children at a sea turtle nest cleaning on July 25. Photo courtesy of Chloe Williams
Lori Ottlein placed her towel on the sand, tugging it into place next to the small depression at the top of the sea turtle nest in Flagler Beach.
“We wait three days after they’ve hatched,” she said, “to give them time to get out on their own.”
Ottlein is a volunteer with the Volusia/Flagler Turtle Patrol, and has been for 25 years. Every year during the sea turtles’ nesting season — from May 1 to Oct. 31 — Ottlein is out on the beach, checking for new nests and monitoring the others for signs that the baby sea turtles have hatched.
Once the eggs have hatched, a volunteer checks the nest for any baby sea turtles that didn’t make it out with their siblings. The volunteer, like Ottlein, gets down in the sand and gently begins clearing the sand away until they come across the eggs.
Sometimes not all of the hatchlings make it out of the nest, Ottlein said. The baby turtles climb up the stacked eggs like a ladder to leave the nest, she said. Eventually, the stacked eggs become empty egg shells and fall over, trapping some hatchlings inside.
Turtle patrol volunteers rescue any remaining living hatchlings and count the eggs for data, she said. Only about one in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings survive into adulthood, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
On Sunday, July 30, Ottlein cleaned out two nests herself: one at 7:30 a.m. and the other at 6 p.m. While the 6 p.m. loggerhead nest didn’t contain any live hatchlings, the loggerhead nest from that morning — near a dune walkover by North 15th Street in Flagler Beach — contained nine hatchlings, sitting in the bottom among the empty shells.
Harrison Wheelan and Taylor Speglevin were walking their two dogs, Buster and Foxy, when they came across Ottlein releasing the rescued baby turtles.
July 30 happened to be Wheelan’s birthday, and he said the release was a great surprise.
“I saw them, but I was like, ‘Nah, there’s no way,’” he said. “That’s wild.”
The Turtle Patrol offers a program that lets people adopt a sea turtle nest for $50, according to the patrol’s website.
Adopters receive an adoption certificate and educational packets and are notified when their adopted nest is cleaned.
For Lina Williams, the experience is always special, even though she’s been adopting sea turtle nests for almost 11 years straight.
“I just stepped back and looked,” she said. “I’m just blown away that after 11 years, I can still feel in awe of the experience.”
Williams said she began adopting nests when her daughter, Chloe, was 4.
This year, Williams brought her 4-year-old son Wade and 15-year-old Chloe and invited families from her kids’ homeschool co-op to a turtle nest cleaning.
Williams said she’s the co-op’s field trip coordinator, and thought it would be a great opportunity to teach kids — and parents — outside of textbooks.
Around 50 people showed up, she said, and almost none had ever experienced anything like it before.
“Every child there was in complete awe,” Williams said.
Ottlein was their volunteer for the cleaning, and whenever she pulled out a living baby turtle, all the kids cheered, Williams said. The best part, she said, was getting to see so many others experience the nest cleaning for the first time.
“This was definitely the best year for me,” she said. “Without a doubt, I’m going to keep inviting other families.”
