PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – In SnapJAX Stories this week, we’re back on the water.
So many of our Insiders’ pictures are from the beach, and it’s clear why, but you might not fully understand this picture without hearing the story behind it.
Brandy Hourihan is in training to help protect local sea turtles, and she took a picture of an imprint in the sand that had a story of its own.
If you’re looking with an untrained eye this might just look like another gorgeous sunrise picture or maybe the design in the sand caught your eye. If it did, you’re on the right track.
“This is our perfect example,” said Lana Kirkpatrick, a volunteer for the Sea Turtle Patrol. “We are permit No. 23.”
She’s certified through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission. Every day she and a crew of volunteers scour the beach looking for sea turtle nests.
“We are authorized because, you know, these are endangered species and you don’t want to be handling them,” Kirkpatrick said.
Sometimes she and the volunteers stumble on what you see in our SnapJAX picture: a false crawl.
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“She (the turtle) thought about laying her nest. You can see how she dug right in here. And she did not. She kept going. She got up here and said ‘I don’t like this at all.’ So then she turned around and went back out,” Kirkpatrick said.
The soon-to-be mama turtle headed back out to find a more suitable place to lay her eggs.
“It pretty much looks to me like she didn’t like the sound quality. Yeah, like if she didn’t like the feel of the sand or whatever. We don’t know what really makes her stop,” Kirkpatrick said.
While Kirkpatrick educated us about the photo, she didn’t snap the SnapJAX picture that caught my eye. It was Brandy Hourihan, who is in training, hoping to one day join the turtle patrol.
“It’s very exciting to be able to see nature and know that these turtles have been able to, come up shore in the middle of night when nobody was looking and lay their eggs and nests,” Hourihan said.
This is on-the-job training. She also has to eventually get certified to officially join the team. Brandy posted her picture of the false crawl on SnapJAX, which led us to the nature detective, who’s really searching for nests.
“We need to be able to see where the nest actually is. So we can tape it off properly,” Hourihan said.
Marine turtles are endangered species so that’s just one step to keep the eggs out of harm’s way. We can all help by turning out lights visible from the beach, cleaning up trash, filling in holes you dig in the sand before you leave the beach and never disturbing a nest.
Brandy’s picture brought us to the water, showing an important story that we might have missed without her sharing this circle of life in the sand on SnapJAX.
“I wasn’t quite expecting all the attention but it’s nice to be able to shine some light on the turtles and how we can help,” Hourihan said.
Maybe next time you’re at the beach, you’ll see a little magic in the sand and thanks to Brandy, you’ll know the story behind the imprint.
Keep watching for SnapJAX stories because new ones drop every week and if you’re an Insider, keep posting your pictures on News4JAX.com/SnapJAX. (Not an Insider? Sign up for free here!)
Who knows? I might reach out to you for the next SnapJAX Stories.