Andrea Stetson Correspondent Published 4:17 p.m. UTC Jul 3, 2018 Thin jagged streaks of lightning lit up the dark sky over the Gulf of Mexico slightly illuminating the loggerhead turtle that flung sand over her back as she dug her nest. Mosquitoes and no-see-ums swarmed around the two interns as the young ladies stood silently watching and waiting. The gentle lap of water trickling on shore, the noisy song of the crickets and the scratching of sand beneath turtle’s flippers blended together as the sounds of nature. Finally, the sand flinging stopped and the turtle was still as she dropped her round white eggs into the cavity she dug in the sand. That’s when Laura Blessing and Jennifer Wissmann, the interns, quickly got to work. Under the glow of a red head flashlight, they scanned her pit tag lodged inside her back flipper. They added an exterior tag to a front flipper. They took a tissue sample, measured her shell and even gently and fondly patted her large head. Once she was busy laying eggs, the mother turtle seem oblivious to the people around her. As the last egg dropped into the hole the mother turtle slightly turned her body… Read full this story
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