Removing litter yields more than clean beaches. To them, plastic bags look like dinner. The reptiles strike, get entangled and suffocate. The Pennsylvania transplant is president of Sea Turtle, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded to protect, rehabilitate and provide education about the shelled creatures. Visitors sit in the backyard of an old home and listen as volunteers discuss turtles.
Assistants display examples for inspection.
The most endangered turtle is the Kemp's ridley, which nests only on an isolated beach in Mexico. Fine restaurants border the lagoon side of the island. In March, South Padre attracts hordes of collegians celebrating Spring Break. Summer brings vacationing families. When frost dusts the North, Canadian snow- birds flock south to become Winter Texans.