Friday, September 4, 2009

Live Streaming Turtle Cams

A short time ago, I read that live streaming webcams were being placed at three Loggerhead sea turtle nests, on a private beach on Big Pine Key in the Lower Florida Keys. These cameras were funded by the Florida Keys tourism council in an effort to raise awareness of sea turtles and two Keys based organizations, Save-A-Turtle and Marathon's Turtle Hospital that are working to protect and care for marine turtles and their habitat.

Laws prohibit people from touching or disturbing hatchlings, nests and nesting turtles, however the placement of these webcams was approved by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The turtle cams were put on three loggerhead nests in mid-August. The cameras were equipped with infrared emitters to avoid any disturbing the turtle hatchlings. Sadly, the first nest did not produce a hatch, the second did, but there was a problem with the camera and it failed to record. The third nest however, was a complete success! Now we can all watch the baby loggerheads emerge from their nest and make their way to the ocean. You may want to share this with your friends. :-)

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE WEBCAM

1 comment:

bobbie said...

What a fun site! I'll put it on my blog too. So good to see so many of the little guys hatching. thanks!