Tour de Turtles: Anna Maria Island Edition

Hi again, Lazy Turtles! My family and I just got back from a wonderful trip to Anna Maria Island. The beach there was so beautiful, we had a great rental house, and the overall experience was fantastic. But I think the highlight of our trip was a turtle release we attended, part of Tour de Turtles 2019. The female loggerhead turtle was HUGE. Her name is Bortie Too. She had nested the night before the release, and then she got a tracker attached. You can follow Bortie’s satellite tracker here.

Did you know that baby turtles don’t follow moonlight reflecting off the water? Their instinct instead tells them to go away from the tall, dark dunes. Leatherback sea turtles are the largest sea turtles, while a Kemp’s Ridley is the smallest and most endangered turtle, being hunted almost to extinction in 1947, when 100,000-150,000 turtles were killed. The sad evidence of that still shows today.

We also had a chance to stop by the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota on the trip home. It was amazing! They had facts on every imaginable topic, but we focused mainly on turtles. Okay, to the very beginning . . . the first form of a sea turtle evolved 210 MILLION years ago! The first modern sea turtle was alive 150 million years ago, which means turtles swam alongside Megalodons and Spinosaurus! No wonder they seem so old and wise in fairy tales. 😉

After baby turtles reach the ocean, they swim for a straight 24-48 hours, called a swim frenzy. They know they are in danger, so they are trying to reach the stronger currents farther out. They do not eat and live on only yolk preserves while they are swimming to this current. It’s a hard life to be a baby sea turtle! Only an estimated 1 in 1,000 sea turtles live to reach adulthood. That’s why we donate 10% of our profits to the Sea Turtle Conservancy - when you buy something from Lazy Turtle, it makes a big impact. Thanks for following along!