From Padre Island NS Division of Sea Turtle Science & Recovery: Padre Island NS Division of Sea Turtle Science & Recovery The next possible public release of Kemp’s ridley hatchlings at Padre Island National Seashore (on North Padre Island) is sometime between Thursday August 1 and Saturday August 3. Check back to this Facebook page or our Hatchling Hotline at 361-949-7163 for updates on the next upcoming release. We have held 20 public releases of Kemp’s ridley hatchlings at Padre Island National Seashore this year and hope to hold 1-4 more between now and mid-August, when the last Kemp’s ridley clutch is released. We only have 12 clutches of Kemp’s ridley eggs remaining in incubation at the National Seashore and those hatchlings will be released as follows: 7 clutches laid from June 15-17 will be released between about August 1 and 5 4 clutches laid on June 24 and 25 will be released between about August 10 and 13 1 clutch laid on July 7 will be released between about August 23 and 25 Public releases will occur on a few days sometime within these projected release date ranges. Release dates will depend on when the eggs hatch and hatchlings are ready for release. Because hatchlings often enter their frenzy and must be released immediately during the middle of the night, only a portion of the clutches remaining in incubation will be released during the public releases. Public releases are held at 6:45 am. We schedule and announce releases the day before they are scheduled to occur. When we schedule a release we are predicting that hatchlings will enter their frenzy and need to be released at 6:45 am the next morning. Typically hatchlings behave as expected and the public releases occur as scheduled. However, occasionally they do not and a public release must be cancelled. To help ensure that scheduled releases are not cancelled, we tend to schedule our public releases when multiple clutches are due to hatch at the same time. This provides “insurance” so that if hatchlings from one or more of the clutches enter their frenzy and must be released during the middle of the night there are other hatchlings left that potentially could be released at the scheduled public release. We advise those traveling to our area to attend a release to come when several clutches are due to be released within a date range, arrive early in the date range and, be prepared to stay a few days. If you arrive late in the date range you risk that the hatchlings may have already been released before you arrive. Note that on rare occasions weather-related events prohibit conducting public releases due to safety concerns. This includes thunderstorms that develop immediately before or during releases. This also includes tropical storms or hurricanes which can cause extremely high tides or necessitate closing Padre Island National Seashore.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 14:59:53 +0000