We left the house a little after 8 a.m., took the HOV lane (which I can do with 2 kids in the car, YEA!) to downtown Houston, hooked up with I45 south, and cruised to Galveston in about an hour and 40 minutes. We were almost 45 minutes early for our tour of the sea turtle hatchery. The hatchery is located behind the San Luis hotel which faces the seawall and the Gulf of Mexico. Texas A&M University-Galveston has a campus next door.
The hatchery is a federal government program to preserve and research the 5 species of sea turtles living in the Gulf. They collect eggs and hatchlings from wild nests, tag the mama turtles if they can, and raise the hatchlings at the facility. Turtles range in age from about a year to 3 years old.
Emma had a good time snapping above the little turtles. ("Mommy, I think they're snapping turtles!") They responded by thrashing about and opening their mouths as if waiting for their turtle chow.
Some turtles just rested on the bottoms of their tanks. Chillin'.
The turtles are separated, because they would fight if placed together. Sea turtles are naturally solitary animals, so they would compete for space and food if kept in one large tank. This way all the turtles grow at the same rate, are fed the same amount, and it is easy to tell if a turtle is ill.
If you would like to follow the migration of Kemp's ridley sea turtles satellite-tagged on Galveston Island, go to http://www.seaturtle.org/, click "tracking" button (near the top) and select "TAMUG Kemp's Ridley Nesters 2007-2008" from the list of projects.
We did this and had a great time seeing where the turtles spend their time when not nesting. I think there were 4 turtles active. Three spent their time in the waters around Galveston to south Louisiana. One nested in Galveston and then traveled to Florida. Go figure!
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