NEWS LEADER (Fernandina Beach, Florida) 08 June 06 Eroding beaches a threat to turtles (Laura Fowler)
Imagine being the size of a baseball and having to dig through about three feet of sand only to crawl into a big black violent ocean where just about every creature is bigger than you - and hungry.
This is the first encounter with life for sea turtle hatchlings after incubating in a nest for about 60 days on Northeast Florida shores.
Once out of the nest, they face a one in 1,000 chance of surviving.
"When you're a hatchling pretty much everything eats you," Matt Love, a biologist at the Guana Reserve, said in a sea turtle presentation last month.
Besides birds, crabs, dogs, raccoons and even fire ants, these miniature turtles must face fishermen that catch them on hooks and in nets, trash - especially plastic - that they often mistake for food, and hurricanes that wash away nests, Love said.
Last year's record-breaking hurricane season helped destroy 28 out of 78 nests on Guana Reserve beaches in Ponte Vedra, Love said.
Despite those numbers, experts say hurricanes are relatively low on the list of threats to the endangered species.
What could be more damaging than a Category 5 hurricane?
How about the disappearance of Florida's beaches altogether?
Allen Foley with the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in Jacksonville said evidence shows that the sea level is rising and could eventually butt heads with beachfront development.
"There could come a time when there are no beaches in Florida," Foley said.
According to Foley, evidence shows that sea levels have risen and fallen for centuries, but the beaches have always responded accordingly, creating a new dune system beyond the new tide line.
But with buildings and homes lined up along the coast, there is no way for the beaches to naturally adjust, he said.
Gary Appelson, policy coordinator for the Sea Turtle Survival League, part of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation in Gainesville, agrees with Foley.
"Essentially Florida is going to be the most impacted state in the U.S. from climate change and sea level rise," Appelson said.
Appelson is charged with the task of helping shape the state's policies regarding sea turtles and their habitat.
"We are continually increasing the need for more and more sea walls" as more developments are built closer to the beach, he said.
Those sea walls prevent turtles from crawling beyond the high tide line to lay their nests.
More than 50 percent of Florida's beaches are now eroding and about 40 percent are designated by the state as critically eroding, Appelson said.
Appelson has recommended tax incentives for developers who build at locations more in-land and has suggested aggressive land acquisitions on eroding beaches.
The problem for sea turtles is not the people, but where people choose to build, he said.
"Sea turtles and Floridians get along fine," Appelson said.
"The bottom line is you can essentially build on any beach in the state of Florida regardless of if it is eroding. That does not seem to be a very wise policy."
Eroding beaches a threat to turtles