Greetings from the beach of Bandaras Bay. Bandaras Bay is the second largest bay in North America. The largest is Hudsons Bay in Canada. The turtle in this picture was hatched yesterday morning and Nelda let it go in the ocean last night. There are about 6000 trutle nests found on the beach of Bandaras Bay each year. That is up from 600 twenty years ago due to the rescue efforts of volunteers that help the baby turtles get safely to the water. Nelda is holding one of about a hundred turtles that were released this night. It is quite a sight, kids and adults line up about 10 feet from the water and everyone has their own turtle. On the count of three everyone puts their turtle down and off they go crawing on the sand toward the ocean. It is almost as much fun a gerble racing as everyone is rooting for their turtle. Some of the turtles are very fast and some are slow. They are all amazingly strong. As they get to the water they start to swim out into the waves. You can see doze ns of little heads bobbing up and down as they swim away. Sooner or later they all make it to the ocean and then they are gone. Some of them will return to this very same beach to lay eggs in about 12 years. These turtles eat jellyfish so they keep the bay a much nicer place to swim.