Ocean Sentry
Almost 100 loggerhead sea turtles became disoriented by lights Tuesday morning and wandered along the beach instead of heading into the ocean after they hatched in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, officials said.
About seven of the amphibians were rescued from a 15-foot storm drain, said Lou Fisher, of the Broward County Natural Resource Planning and Management Division.
In all, between 90 to 100 sea turtles were disoriented, Fisher said.
About two-thirds of them made it back into the water, including the seven found by surveyors who followed their tracks to the drain. The surveyors called firefighters, who pulled the hatchlings out, Fisher said. The other surviving turtles wandered in vegetation along the beach near the 1800 block of South Ocean Blvd. Between 30 and 40 turtles did not survive, Fisher said.
City lights often confuse newborn sea turtles, who sometimes scramble from their nest toward the street instead of the moonlit ocean, Fisher said.
Loggerhead turtles are listed as a threatened species by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, he said.
(From miamiherald.com, Miami, by Rafael A. Olmeda and Alexia Campbell)
