KSC-2010-4135

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A new batch of endangered sea turtle eggs brought from beaches along the northern U.S. Gulf Coast arrive at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Nests of Kemp’s ridley and Loggerhead turtle eggs from Gulf Shores, Ala., and various Florida Gulf Coast beaches are being transported by a specially equipped FedEx truck to a secure, climate-controlled facility at Kennedy. They will be monitored by biologists and hatchery workers until incubation is complete. The hatchlings will be released at different points along a 100-mile stretch of the Atlantic Ocean shoreline. That includes beaches adjacent to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is located inside Kennedy. The release and relocation work is part of an effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the National Park Service, NOAA, FedEx and conservationists to help minimize the risk to this year’s sea turtle hatchlings from impacts of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This plan involves carefully moving an anticipated 700 nests during the next several months. Photo credit: NASA_Ben Smegelsky