Sea Turtle Inc. working to protect turtle eggs from Beryl's potential impact
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A non-profit organization finalized evacuation plans for thousands of sea turtle eggs and several hospitalized turtles on Friday ahead of Beryl’s approach.
Seat Turtle Inc. CEO Wendy Knight says they're currently caring for injured turtles in a temporary hospital while they build a new one, but they worry the temporary structure may not withstand what could come.
“This is a moving target, we are making decisions on an hour-by-hour basis,” Knight said. “This is the largest number of chambers nests and eggs that have been in the corral during a major storm event."
While the hospitalized turtles are easier to move indoors, it's the turtles that haven't hatched yet that are keeping caretakers at Sea Turtle Inc. up at night.
“The success rate of them hatching if we pull them from the ground and move them to another place is not a great option either,” Knight said.
Another concern for Seat Turtle Inc. is a walkway where the unhatched sea turtle eggs are kept. The walkway flooded when Tropical Storm Alberto came in, and if Beryl is stronger, Sea Turtle Inc. says they worry these eggs could be taken out to sea.
To try and minimize the impacts, Sea Turtle Inc. volunteers have put up a barrier, but Knight says she's hoping some extra help from Cameron County will keep these eggs safe.
“We did reach out to our partners at Cameron County, and they are going to go ahead and close that walkway off as well, and we believe that will be a monumental difference in our ability to withstand tropical storm type flooding,” Knight said.
Knight told Channel 5 News they want to leave the eggs here as long as possible, hoping they don't have to disturb them at all.
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