click photo to enlarge   THESE LOGGERHEAD and green turtles are among more than 40 hatchlings found on area beaches after Tropical Storm Tammy passed off shore. Photos by PETER WILLOTT, peter.willott@staugustinerecord.com

All the effort these babies demonstrated in the last month to trek about 40 miles out to sea washed away this week as they arrived back at their birth place.

About 35 sea turtles tossed and tumbled with the sargassum seaweed Tropical Storm Tammy threw onto St. Johns County beaches.

"This is a green and he's ready to fly," said Evelyn Stauber, St. Johns Wildlife Care Sea Turtle Patrol coordinator, as she held the palm-sized turtle.

This is the first time in a few years there have been washbacks on St. Augustine Beach, Stauber said. Some were a matter of days old, some a few weeks.

Turtle Patrol volunteers and lifeguards collected 12 loggerhead turtles and one green turtle Wednesday. More were found Thursday by police and lifeguards, Stauber said.

	click photo to enlarge   EVELYN STAUBER holds a baby green turtle found on St. Augustine Beach after Tropical Storm Tammy passed off shore.

Stauber coordinated the collection of baby turtles Thursday afternoon and drove them to the Marine Science Center in Volusia County for rehabilitation.

There they joined the about 700 others brought in from Brevard County north.

Michelle Bauer, sea turtle rehabilitation specialist at the center, said she expects an additional 400.

"They swam their little hearts out to get where they got and were carried back," Bauer said

Last year, Bauer rehabilitated 300 disoriented turtle babies. This year, she has already seen more than 1,000.

	click photo to enlarge   Evelyn Stauber

Bauer documents the size, species and age of each turtle before placing them in a saltwater tank. The turtles that are lethargic will receive medical attention and will be tube fed.

While at the center the turtles, which are mostly loggerheads and greens, will eat turtle pellets and cut shrimp and will swim amid sargassum seaweed.

"Mostly they are opportunistic and will eat anything," Bauer said.

Evidence that some had eaten blue plastic and part of a red balloon in the ocean could be seen in the tank, Bauer said. This is dangerous, she added.

"It can plug them up and create an intestinal blockage and kill them," Bauer said.

Also, it is important to have a high number of hatchlings because the survival rate is low, she added. One in 1,000 will make it to be a juvenile and only one in 10,000 will make it to adulthood.

Ten nests were laid on St. Augustine Beach this season. Seven have hatched, one was poached and two are expected to hatch within the next few days, Stauber said.

The first nest hatched about two months ago and each nest has had about 100 babies. After crawling from the sand, they faced perils including birds and fish to swim out to the Gulf Stream to hide in the seaweed on top the water, drifting with the currents.

Arrangements are being made, possibly for Sunday, to transport the babies between 30 and 60 miles out and place them back in the seaweed.

"It's too rough for them to go out to sea right now," Stauber said. "All they would do is wash right back up again."