More On: Chandeleur Islands
For the first time in 75 years, endangered sea turtles were found on islands in Louisiana
This summer, for the first time in 75 years, a species of sea turtles that is on the verge of extinction was found nesting on the beaches of Louisiana's Chandeleur Islands.
Matthew Weigel, coastal resources scientist manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, told the Associated Press that a crew that was counting birds saw the Kemp's ridley turtles' tracks. The crew had been counting birds, but they noticed the turtle tracks.
"Louisiana was mostly written off as a place for sea turtles to nest decades ago, but this decision shows why barrier island restoration is so important," said Chip Kline, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
The CRPA and LDWF flew over the island once a week to look for more tracks. Weigel saw hatchling tracks on the beach on July 29. He was out for a walk. After following them, the crew found a nest with two newly hatched turtles making their way to the ocean.
“There was some high-fiving going on,” he told AP.
Weigel said that aerial surveys found 52 sets of Kemp's ridley tracks, although some of them were "false crawls" where no nest was made. The CRPA says that more than 53 crawls of sea turtles have been recorded.
Since May, the CPRA and the LDWF have been keeping an eye on the Chandeleur Islands as part of the work of the Regionwide Trustee Implementation Group to rebuild the islands, which were almost completely destroyed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010.
CRPA said that sea turtle hatchlings hadn't been seen on the islands since 1947, which was before the oil spill.
The groups working on the restoration hope that the hatchlings mean more places for birds to nest for many years to come.
“The discovery of sea turtles nesting and successfully hatching is a huge step forward demonstrating the amazing resilience of fish and wildlife resources, including threatened and endangered species, and the importance of restoring these barrier islands to protect humans and nature,” said Leopoldo Miranda-Castro, Regional Director, US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The USFWS crawl survey shows that the islands are also home to nesting loggerhead sea turtles, which are on the federal list of threatened species. In 2015, it was found that Loggerhead turtles were nesting on Grand Isle, which is about 80 miles from the Chandeleur Islands. At the time, it was the first time in over 30 years that a sea turtle had been seen nesting on the coast of Louisiana.
The groups hope to find more nests on the Chandeleur Islands. June and July are the busiest months for sea turtles to lay eggs, and the babies hatch 50 to 60 days later.
The news about the Louisiana sea turtles comes just a few weeks after beach workers in Mississippi found the first sea turtle nest in four years. It was also a rare Kemp's ridley sea turtle.
