Save the Turtles

When Mom and Heidi took their customary walk on the beach this morning they were haled by a couple of ladies with the honey drawl of these parts. In short, we had left our outside lights on overnight and that's a no-no around here. This beach is one of the few where the endangered loggerhead lays her eggs, and from April to October the community observes some simple practices to assist these turtles and help to increase the odds thet their offspring will survive.

The women were actually members of a local turtle patrol. Later we found a postcard-sized message wedged into the outlet by the outdoor light switch that explained everything. (Those turtle ladies are efficient!) It seems that when the young turtles hatch, it is the light of the moon that draws them into the sea. Household illuminations can distract these newborns with disastrous consequence; once turned around hatchlings rarely find their way to the ocean.

I want to do all I can to preserve this (and any) species-- really I do-- but I confess that I'm a wee bit conflicted. On the one hand there is the pathos of those infant loggerheads heading with all of their innate instinct and determination in a direction exactly opposite of the one they ought to go. Then there is the notion of natural selection. Hey! Dumbass! The ocean is over there!

Don't worry. The lights are out.