The sea can be a dangerous place for young turtles that have to survive commercial fishing, loose nets, abandoned fishing lines, pollution and large marine predators, but getting the first few yards from their nests into the sea can be especially hazardous for baby turtles born in Cayman.

The turtle nesting season for loggerheads is coming to an end, but green sea turtle are still laying eggs and many of their hatchlings will not emerge until October.

Until then, the Department of Environment is keeping a close eye on the nests that are scattered throughout Cayman’s beaches.

According to Department of Environment Research Officer Janice Blumenthal, this year has seen a bumper crop of babies, but that means the poachers are also on the look-out for turtles.

“There have also been a couple of incidents where turtles have been poached or nearly poached. Enforcement officers were called to the scene just before a turtle was slaughtered,” she said.

Last month, police and DoE officers rescued a turtle that they estimated weighed more than 300 pounds from a shrub area where poachers dragged her when she came out of the water to lay her eggs. They found her trussed up and helpless.

After she was freed and raced back to the sea, the turtle returned to lay her eggs on the beach, which is now being patrolled by enforcement officers.

Another turtle, this one even bigger, came onto the sand on Seven Mile Beach to lay her eggs but lost her bearings when she encountered a row of stacked beach loungers and ended up in a pool beside a condo development.

“She came up and made her nest and then went the wrong way,” said Ms Blumenthal.

Mark Orr, the Department of Environment’s chief conservation officer, climbed into the swimming pool to try to get the giant turtle out, and he had the bruises to prove it.

It took several people and a large sheet of plywood to finally heave her out of the pool and back onto the beach.

One ongoing problem that adult and baby turtles face is they are easily blinded by beach-side lighting, which causes them to become disoriented and head inland rather than out to sea.

While it might be tempting to try to catch a quick photo of cute baby turtles as they scurry toward the water for their first swim, Department of Environment staff warn that flash photography temporarily blinds the hatchlings.

“Camera flashes and light from torches can cause them to just go round in circles. It takes them about 15 or 20 minutes to recover,” Ms Blumenthal said.

Hatchling turtles head toward the brightest horizon to find the ocean, which on a natural beach, would be the moon and stars over the water.

Ms Blumenthal said the DoE works with condos and beach-front property owners to turn off lights, but “in some cases, a nest is missed, so property owners in the area cannot be notified, or a light unexpectedly causes a disorientation event”.

The department is asking beach-front property owners to turn off unnecessary lights as a precaution and to contact the department when new turtle nests/tracks are found.

Anyone who see a group of hatchlings heading away from the sea at night should call the Department of Environment.

Another problem facing baby turtles is if they try to get into the sea during the day, they are almost certainly destined to become the prey of large fish and birds that can easily spot them in the water against the white sand below.

“One afternoon a group of tourists thought they were doing the right thing by helping to get the baby turtles into the sea and then they just had to stand by and watch as all the hatchlings got picked off by the frigate birds hovering above,” Mr. Orr said.

If beach-goers spot turtle hatchlings making their way into the sea in daylight hours, they are advised to gather them up in a bucket or cooler of sand and cover the top with a blanket or towel.

“It’s best to put them in sand, because if you put them in water, they’ll just swim and swim and become exhausted,” advised Mr. Orr.

Once night falls, the baby turtles can then be released on the beach, near the water.

Harming turtles or their eggs carries a maximum fine of $500,000 and one year in prison, but in reality the fines and sentences meted out in court are considerably less than the maximum allowed under the Marine Conservation Law.

Last year, three men who pleaded guilty to taking a turtle during closed season were sentenced to 120 hours of community service and fines of $2,000 each, while a fourth man who was also involved received a sentence to 100 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine. A harsher penalty was handed down on another man who was convicted of being in possession of a wild turtle without a licence in October 2008. He was sentenced to three months in prison.

Ms Blumenthal said that thanks to regular patrols and checks on the beaches in Cayman where turtles nest, staff and volunteers have been able to establish that fewer than 20 loggerheads had laid eggs here so far this season and about another 20 green sea turtles were expected to lay eggs by October.

These numbers are higher than in recent years, when they fell to below 10 of those two species, but are just a tiny fraction of the historical accounts of millions of turtles nesting in Cayman. Reports of hawksbill and leatherback turtles nesting locally have been very scarce over the past several years, and they are considered locally extinct.

The Department of Environment has identified 27 beaches in Grand Cayman, seven in Cayman Brac, and 16 in Little Cayman that are suitable for sea turtle nesting.

The nesting season for turtles runs from May through October. Turtles can lay between 100 and 130 eggs three to six times each season.

“Killing one female turtle of nesting age can have a huge impact on the future population of turtles in Cayman,” said Ms Blumenthal. Each turtle can lay between 100 and 130 eggs at one time and can lay several times in a single season.

All sea turtles species are either endangered or threatened.

Anyone who sees someone harming or taking turtles or their eggs from Cayman’s beaches should call police on 911.

All sea turtle species are either endangered or threatened.

The slowly growing number of turtles that nest in Cayman may be due to changes in the Marine Conservation (Turtle Protection)(Amendment) Regulations, which came into effect in December 2007. These expanded the time during which fishermen are prohibited from taking sea turtles from April to November. The previous closed season for turtle fishing lasted from May to October.

It also stipulates that during the turtling season, licensed turtlers can only catch turtles with shells less than 60cm, or nearly 2 feet, long.