World’s smallest, most endangered sea turtles hatch in Louisiana for the first time in more than 75 years

Crews monitoring the Chandeleur Islands to help design a restoration project found tracks of females going to and from nests and of hatchlings leaving a nest.

The world’s smallest and most endangered sea turtles have hatched in Louisiana for the first known time in more than 75 years, officials said Wednesday. 🐢 “There was some high-fiving going on,” one scientist said after hatchling tracks were found.

Crews monitoring the Chandeleur Islands to help design a restoration project found tracks of females going to and from nests and of hatchlings leaving a nest.

Aug 17, 2022NEW ORLEANS — The world’s smallest and most endangered sea turtles have hatched in Louisiana’s wilds for the first known time in more than 75 years, officials said Wednesday.“Louisiana was largely written off as a nesting spot for sea turtles decades ago, but this determination demonstrates why barrier island restoration is so important,” Chip Kline, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority, said in a news release.

Crews monitoring the Chandeleur Islands — a chain 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of New Orleans — to help design a restoration project found tracks of females going to and from nests and of hatchlings leaving a nest.The first tracks were found by a crew surveying birds “before the sea turtle nesting season really kicked off,” said Matthew Weigel, coastal resources scientist manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

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