Turtle Watchers Guarding ‘Frenzy’

Naturalists lined Atlantic beaches on Saturday to guard the “hatching frenzy” of the loggerhead turtle, a threatened species whose eggs were once sold as aphrodisiacs.

Scott Peterson, patrolling this island off the southern tip of North Carolina, said at least two nests were due to hatch sometime early today and naturalists would be on hand to make sure the loggerheads safely reached the ocean.

“What happens in a hatch is the turtles--which look like fully developed turtles shrunk down to the size of a 50-cent piece--crawl all over each other until they get oriented to which way is up,” Peterson said. Adult loggerheads weigh up to 400 pounds.

“When they start working their way to the top of the underground nest and beating their way to the water, it’s called a hatching frenzy,” he said.

Last year, an estimated 15,000 baby loggerheads were hatched.