I found a HUGE sea turtle today!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

We went to the beach for the day (central Texas Gulf Coast). I saw what I thought was a plastic bag or a big out of place rock, got closer and it was a HUGE sea turtle! She had crawled about 20 ft onto the beach, I think layed eggs because there was a smoothed place in the sand, walked another 3 feet, and that’s where her life mysteriously ended. :frowning:

I had seen the turtle watch signs so when we got home I reported it and the lady will go get the eggs if they are there. They raise them in a protected environment and release them when they have a good chance at survival. They also try to figure out what killed the adult.

It looked like it happened less than a day ago. Poor thing. I don’t know much about their life cycle. I’ll have to read up on it. I hope she lived a good life and had lots of healthy babies!

2

Very sad. Numberless undetected struggles for existence happen around us constantly.

3

Maybe you can keep an eye on those eggs and make sure her sacrifice was not in vain!

4

It’s possible her belly was full of plastic bags.

Thank you for reporting it! It’s possible the turtle watch organization will also remove the body and do a necropsy. Determining and recording cause of death gives scientists valuable information.

5

I’m going to call them back this week and ask what they found. Hopefully they got some eggs!

6

Too bad the turtle died.

Do you know which species? Green and Loggerhead seem to be the largest ones that nest regularly in Texas. Leatherbacks are truly enormous, but the only recent record from Texas seems to be in 2008. I was lucky to see a Leatherback laying one night.