It’s not Myrtle Beach – it only sounds like it and it’s all for the ladies – lady Green Turtles that is. As of July 2002, Turtle Beach is the domain these fortunate creatures now have to call their own, located at the Beach Towers, Atlantis. Equipped with a five feet deep sandy slope that meets the water, and a sprinkler system within the sand, the only difference between this mimicry and an actual beach, is the temperature-controlled environment.
The purpose of the sprinkler system is to monitor the moisture of the sand because turtles like moist sand. This is also very important as the outcome of the sex of the turtle depends on what the temperature is,” said Natasha Christie, Atlantis Curator and overseer of the turtle beach project. She further explained, “The past two years, they have been using the planters to lay their eggs, and because it is not the natural sand that they are used to, we thought that we would create a natural beach to simulate this.”
At present, the turtle lagoon facilitates a total of 25 green turtles, of which the water features department is certain that two are male, and two are female. Ms. Christie explains, “You must wait until they are reproductively mature to determine the sex of the turtle. This can be anywhere between 3 and 13 years, but until then the males have longer tails than the females.”
The laying season for the turtles is during June through September. Only during the evening hours or at nighttime will the females attempt to come up onto the beach to begin the two-hour process. The turtle will dig a hole with a diameter of 2-3ft, and position herself to deposit her eggs into the hole.
“A fascinating thing about them is that they don’t put all their eggs in one basket,” said Ms. Christie. She explained that the turtles could lay up to nine separate clutches of eggs, each containing 80 to 100 hatchlings, but only lay one clutch per night. Therefore, it could take a period of up to nine days for the turtles to completely lay all of their eggs. She added, “Coming up day after day helps to ensure their survival. If they lay all at once and a predator destroys them, they have no chance.”
Ms. Christie feels that her department has established optimal conditions for this species. She conveyed that captivity of the turtles also contributes to their survival. “With this beach, the hatchlings don’t have to encounter the traumatic experience of swimming out to sea with waves crashing against the shoreline, nor do they have predators to be concerned about,” stated Ms. Christie. Other benefits of captivity are the periodic observation of the creatures throughout each day, which allows the staff to take action should any problems occur within the environment.
