(16 Jun 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Juno Beach, Florida, US – 11 June 2025
1. Mid of researchers observing a sea turtle nesting at night
2. Close up of sea turtle nesting
3. Various of sea turtle laying eggs
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Justin Perrault, Vice President of Research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center:
"So we monitor a nine and a half mile stretch of beach in northern Palm Beach County here at Loggerhead Marine Life Center and in this part of Florida this beach right here which is in northern Palm beach county right next to the gulf stream we have the highest concentration of loggerhead nesting in the western hemisphere and possibly in the world just right out here in our backyard."
5. Mid of researchers from Loggerhead Marinelife Center conducting sea turtle nesting research under moonlight
6. Close of Loggerhead Marinelife Center researcher shirt
7. Various of sea turtle digging in the sand
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Justin Perrault, Vice President of Research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center:
"When we’re driving up and down the beach what we’re looking for are those crawls that you see in the sand that move from east to west so the animal is leaving the ocean and then crawling west towards the dune and based on those crawls we can kind of see what what type of animal what species of animal is up. And then what we are also doing is we’re waiting for that animal to start laying her eggs before we touch her, or study her examine her in any way, as during that egg laying process what happens is those fight-or-flight hormones that might tell that turtle normally, there’s a big scary human predator near me, I need to go. Those hormones are significantly reduced while they’re nesting and so they’re not typically responsive to external stimuli during the process when the eggs are physically coming out of the body. And so that’s when we have that like eight to twelve minute window to do the majority of our work and that’s when we typically work those animals up to disturb them the least."
9. Perrault (off camera) showing various species of sea turtle hatchlings UPSOUND (English) Justin Perrault, Vice President of Research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center: "Yeah, so here we’ve got a leatherback hatchling, and then a loggerhead hatchling. And the leatherback is the largest species of turtle that currently exists today. And as a hatchling they even dwarf the other species of sea turtle. So we’ll give these guys a second chance because they wouldn’t have made it out of the nests on their own."
11. Perrault releasing hatchlings on the beach
12. Close of a baby sea turtle navigating the sand
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Justin Perrault, Vice President of Research at Loggerhead Marinelife Center:
"Yeah, so the hatchlings that we released earlier are part of our nest excavation program. So once a nest hatches, we’re required by the state for after 72 hours to dig that nest to understand, it’s a reproductive assessment. How well are these nests hatching in relation to maybe tropical cyclones or beach temperatures or sea level rise or different habitats that may have been altered by construction activities. So tonight we released those hatchlings, so they kind of get a second chance at life. They would not have emerged on their own. So it’s our team that has taken those from the nest that were stuck down in that, and then we release those at night to give them kind of that second chance."
14. Wide of researchers studying sea turtle nesting at night
15. Mid of researchers documenting sea turtle nesting data under red light
16. Close of a researcher taking blood from nesting sea turtle
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