Jane Provancha, NASA biologist, supervises turtle release along the Kennedy Space Center shoreline. Photo credit/NASA
NASA, best known for launching rockets, has embraced new send off responsibilities, incubating dozens of sea turtle eggs rescued from the British Petroleum oil spill along the northern Gulf Coast and placing the hatchlings into the Atlantic from the protected shoreline of the Kennedy Space Center.
The first batch of fledgling turtles was released this week.
The rescue effort, developed by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the Sea Turtle Late-Term Nest Collection and Hatchling Release Plan, has united NASA, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as well as FedEx and volunteers for the relocation of an anticipated 700 nests and perhaps thousands of eggs.
The project began with a survey of nesting areas along the Gulf beaches of Florida’s panhandle and Alabama. Surveyors located and marked nests as the nesting season began. The proactive strategy was intended to protect the nests and their eggs from cleanup efforts as well as the spill itself.
Once the endangered nests are carefully collected, they are packed in specially prepared Styrofoam boxes, and then transported by FedEx ground transportation to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where they remain in incubation until they hatch.
Provancha takes delivery of turtle nests. Photo credit/NASA
Most of the rescues are loggerheads. However, surveyors are also on the look out for Kemp’s ridley, leatherbacks and green turtles.
The rescue effort is a challenge, and officials realize they must temper their expectations.
“On the one hand, the activities identified in the protocols are extraordinary and would never be supportable under normal conditions,” said Sandy MacPherson, the Fish and Wildlife Service national sea turtle coordinator, in a statement. “However, taking no action would likely result in the loss of all of this year’s Northern Gulf of Mexico hatchlings.”
Twenty-two Kemp’s ridley turtles were set free along Kennedy Space Center beaches on July 11. The stretch of coastline is part of the Canaveral National Seashore.
Their nest was collected from Walton County, Fla., on June 26 and transported by FedEx to a secure, climate-controlled facility at Kennedy, where it was monitored by Jane Provancha, lead biologist at the Kennedy hatchery, until incubation was complete.