Sea Turtle, Inc., South Padre Island, Texas

This is probably by far one of my favorite visits this summer. I cried and fell in love with sea turtles. Especially Fred. :) Sea Turtle Inc. was established in 1977 by Ila Fox Loetscher. In 1965, at the age of 61, Ila was asked to work in Rancho Nuevo, Mexico during sea turtle nesting season. After that saving sea turtles became her passion and she dedicated the rest of her life to them. Ila later became known as the "Turtle Lady of South Padre". I think the pictures speak for themselves. Ila's work became so important that she was invited to the David Letterman show in 1985. She took with her an Altlantic Green named Gerry. Gerry is still under the care of Sea Turtle Inc., weighs 150 lbs and is 26 years old.

Sea Turtle Inc. focuses on rehabilitation, education and conservation. They work in conjunction with Glady's Porter Zoo and Laguna Madre Conservation to ensure sea turtles are protected.

During our visit, an intern gave a 30 minute presentation on sea turtles. It was this presentation that helped me understand why Ila fell head over heals with sea turtles. Although the intern's presentation was only 30 minutes long, he delivered a vast amount of information. For example, I learned that when sea turtles hatch, they eat the yolk from the egg shell and that yolk contains a special protein that gives them enough energy to walk through the sand, fight the waves and make it into the sea. As they are walking in the sand, they pick up a mineral from the sand that creates a GPS in their brain. Yes, a GPS as in Global Positioning Map. 20-30 years later, when the turtles are ready to nest, they always return to their place of origin beacuse of that mental GPS! WOW!

This shell belonged to a sea turtle that was struck by the propeller on a boat. Sea Turtle Inc. attempted to restore the shell as you can see by the metal brackets but unfortunately the sea turtle did not make it.

Nesting season is from April-August and the South Padre Island usually sees about 700 nests! Although this number seems amazing, it is nothing compared to that of Rancho Viejo's in Mexico. They see about 7,000 nests each year! Unfortuantely, this number is nothing compared to the 1960s, when turtles would nest close to 30,000 nests! Fortunately, the number is once again rising.

During our visit, we also met Fred and Allison. Fred is a loggerhead that has been injured so many times he is no longer able to return to sea. Sea Turtle Inc., had to design a special tank for Fred because of his size. Fred is now about 54 years old and is missing one fin. An interesting  fun fact about loggerheads: they can hold their breaths for 8 hours! At first we though Fred was dead, but after the presentation, we understood why he was inmobile at the bottom of the tank.

This is some information on Fred. I took a picture of him but he was so far down the tank that he cannot be viewed on the pic. I did buy a postcard though and now it's on my refrigerator!

We also met Allison. Allison is the only sea turtle in the world that swims with a prosthetic! She was even featured in People Magazine and lives in the incubation section of Sea Turtle Inc.,. Allison belongs to the Atlantic Green Species and I learned their diet consists of only........

Sponges!

This is Allison.

This is the other side of the incubation area.

Another fun fact: The sea turtle in Finding Nemo, Crush, is a Green Sea Turtle and they actually do live up to be 150 years old!

Finally, we also learned that plastic is the main reason why sea turtles (an other sea life) dies. :( Please, pick up your trash!