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n a balmy summer evening a few years ago, my family and I were walking along the beach on Jekyll Island near the old picnic grounds by the south end, when my grandson Zachary pointed out a small black rock that seemed to be moving. We all stopped to stare at this little “rock.” Indeed, it was moving! And several other little “rocks” were slowly surrounding us. When I turned on the red LED “Turtlesafe™ flashlight that I had invented several years earlier, we could see that they were baby turtles, coming up out of the sand like hundreds of miniature zombies escaping the grave. They were clawing their way out of a hidden nest buried sixty days earlier by their mother, a 300-pound loggerhead sea turtle. We were privileged to be witnessing one of the most rare and amazing sights a 74
ELEGANT ISLAND LIVING
beachcomber can encounter: what locals call a “boil,” the actual hatching of buried sea turtle eggs from the nest. Transfixed, we watched in silent wonder as the turtle hatchlings, exhausted by their efforts to dig their way out of the covered nest, instinctively headed for the safety of the ocean as fast as their little flippers could flip. As we watched though, some of the hatchlings, instead of following their brothers and sisters toward the surf, struck out down the beach toward the light cast by a bright spotlight that had just come on and was heading our way. Zachary raced up to the group with the light, breathlessly explaining that they needed to turn the light off because sea turtles, including newborn hatchlings will instinctively crawl toward and follow the white beams. Parroting
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an earlier conversation that I’d had with him, he told them scientists are not exactly sure why, but the attraction to the light seems to have something to do with the way the turtles locate the ocean at night. The relative brightness of night sky, the oceanic horizon, and possibly even the white surf seems to trigger ancient cues that instinctively beckon the turtles to the safety of the sea. But, when a white light is brighter than these natural cues, it overwhelms the ancient instincts and, like the Sirens of ancient mythology, lures the hatchlings to certain death. Certain death, because the little turtles will continue to follow the light, even when it leaves the beach. Eventually the exhausted hatchlings get lost in the dunes or end up stranded on the beach when the sun rises, making them easy meals for hungry birds and other patrolling predators.
