Endangered turtle eggs found on island

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, June 13 (UPI) -- The endangered Atlantic leatherback turtle, unlike the swallows' annual trek to Capistrano, took 70 years to return to barrier islands off the Texas coast.

Scientists reported finding tracks and eggs belonging to a leatherback, one of the world's largest turtles, at Padre Island National Seashore, located in the Gulf of Mexico near Corpus Christi, the Austin American-Statesman reported Friday. The last time one visited was in the 1930s.

Atlantic leatherback turtles have been "coming back like gangbusters" because of efforts to protect their nesting beaches, said Larry Crowder, a marine biologist at Duke University specializing in sea turtle population dynamics.

Park service employees found a nest cavity with two egg and another six on the surface. But since leathernecks typically lay 100 eggs, the low number is "very strange," said biological technician Rachael Blair of Padre Island National Seashore's Sea Turtle Science and Recovery division.

Crowder said leatherbacks usually aren't distracted once they begin laying eggs.

"Perhaps she started laying eggs and was frightened off the beach," he said.

Park employees took the two buried eggs to the National Seashore's sea turtle lab for incubation. The six other eggs had grown too hot and were no longer viable.