I am a firm believer that you can't teach a child to care for the earth without helping him fall in love with it's wonders.
Well, let me tell you, my boys love for the ocean grew a little deeper yesterday, after a visit to the NOAA Sea Turtle Facility.
Basically, it's just a big steel barn (they actually do call it the turtle barn), where they raise a whole bunch of sea turtles.
It's part of a decades long effort to increase the dwindling population of sea turtles. Most specifically, the Kemp Ridley, which makes its home in the Gulf of Mexico.
They raise new hatchlings until they are two years old (big enough to no longer be prey for crabs and other sea critters)
Then, they each participate in a test.
See, one of the major killers of sea turtles is shrimping nets. The turtles get caught in them and are unable to come up for air, so they die.
Scientists like the ones that work at NOAA are always looking for ways to help the fishermen do their job in a way that doesn't harm the turtles.
The turtles from NOAA help them test their ideas. Each turtle participates in one test before it is released into the wild.
So they're smart, not just good looking. :-)
We learned all about where they nest, and how they are rescued and cared for and rereleased.
Mostly though, we just stared at them and wished we could stuff a few in our pockets.
As you might imagine, the boys' journal pages were FILLED yesterday with little drawings of sea turtles, brochures from NOAA and scrawled words like, "Sea Turtles ROCK!"
(oh, and as an aside, a few of you asked for more information about our journal "word bank" - click here for a better photo, and a few more details)
If your little sea lovers would like to learn more about sea turtles you can visit these great sites:
www.ridleyturtles.org
We also picked up a really sweet book that would make a great beach blanket read:
Into the Sea
Speaking of beach blanket... there's one calling my name!
Happy Wednesday, folks!
