About a week ago, firefighters at the Bonita Springs Fire District received a call for help. Over a dozen sea turtle hatchlings had fallen into a pair of storm drains near the Mediterra Beach Club, a condominium on Bonita Beach.
First responders came to the scene with volunteers from local nonprofit Turtle Time Inc.
One by one, they removed 14 hatchlings from the storm drain and put them all in a bucket, which they would carry down to the shore to set the babies free.
“Using great care, firefighters safely removed the tiniest of turtles and helped them continue their journey to the Gulf,” a social media post from the fire department shared.
“All turtles were successfully rescued and returned to safety.”
It’s unclear how these turtles ended up trapped in this particular case, but it is unfortunately not all that uncommon.
Last week, a 400-pound nesting sea turtle found her way into a residential area and was trapped in a swimming pool in the Cayman Islands.
Before that, a man went viral on TikTok for rescuing a tiny turtle hatchling from a random sidewalk in the opposite direction of the beach.
So, why do these marine animals stray so far from home? Experts believe it is mostly to do with artificial light sources.
Sea turtles have an instinctive “sea-finding” behavior, almost like an internal compass, that helps them crawl toward the lowest and brightest horizon in their line of sight.
This is usually the ocean reflecting moon and starlight, but with an increase in artificial light sources from development, flashlights, or nearby residential lighting, the sea turtles get confused and redirected from where they are supposed to go.
Then, they find themselves crawling into storm drains or falling into ground-level pools with no way to escape.
The Bonita Springs Fire District’s first priority is always responding to life-threatening emergencies, but when they can, they don’t mind helping residents with pet or wildlife situations.
“Around this time of year, we get a lot of ducklings in drains, but we haven't had a lot of sea turtles,” fire department spokesperson Nicole Hornberger told Naples Daily News. “But this [rescue] was close to the beach.”
If you are a beach town local or tourist, there are steps you can take to make sure sea turtle nesting season goes swimmingly.
And if you’re local to Naples and need a hand from the fire department, residents can call (239) 337-2000 for assistance with animals.
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Featured Image: Alejandro Linares Garcia/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
