It was the second batch of eggs found on Padre Island National Seashore on Tuesday, a 222-egg jackpot for the many devoted to keeping the Kemp's ridley turtle from extinction. Once a common springtime site along Texas' Gulf Coast beaches, the turtles nearly died out as they got caught in trawler's nets or were gathered by the bag load for their supposed aphrodisiac powers. The adult population of Kemp's ridley turtles reached a low of 1,100 in 1985. Since then, their numbers have grown to about 9,000, but they remain the most endangered of the sea turtle species. Bringing them back is the labor of wildlife officials stationed on or near the coast as well as some 90 of volunteers, who spend their free time searching portions of the 80-mile stretch of North Padre Island for the eggs.
More volunteers search the island's southern end.
Donna Shaver, station leader of the U.S. Geological Survey Padre Island Field Research Station, keeps her pager on for the calls. The odds of finding eggs are quite slim but nevertheless because they are we try very hard to go out and find them. If the nests are excavated on time, the eggs will be kept in the Padre Island National Seashore incubation facility. Eggs guarded this way have an 85 percent chance of hatching some 50 days later into silver dollar-sized baby turtles, as opposed to a 17 percent chance in the wild. Once released back into the Gulf, they face another battle for survival.