Sea turtles

So this past weekend, we headed to Hilton Head Island for a relative's wedding and to relax on the beach for a few days. We arrived to the condo after midnight, and since we were still wound up from driving, we took a nice walk on the beach before we hit the sack.

The first thing I noticed about the beach was how incredibly dark it was. There was no moon, and I could hardly see my hand in front of me. I thought it was odd until I asked about it the next day. Because of the sea turtles, Hilton Head has required there to be no light shining on the beach from the land between May 1st and October 31st. So all the waterfront hotels had to put up thick curtains or barriers in order to block the light at night. The reason they do this is to protect the sea turtles. The lights from the shore confuses the mama turtles as well as the baby turtles after they hatch, and they head towards the land instead of heading into the ocean. Since sea turtles are endangered, Hilton Head is trying to do everything to help the turtles get back to the sea as nature intended. I thought that was interesting.

A few days ago, I came across this video on CNN's iReport of newly-hatched baby sea turtles heading for the ocean. It made me smile and gave me all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings:


I wish I could witness some baby sea turtles myself! I enjoyed our stay at Hilton Head. These are the kinds of things you don't find when you do Las Vegas traveling. :-)