[ open ] operation: baby sea turtle rescue is a go!

[lyingheart]

WHO: ALL IMPORTS.
WHERE: An Atlantic-facing beach in Eastern Florida.
WHEN: Saturday - Monday
WHAT: Baby leatherback sea-turtles have been stunned by the temperatures of the water at their hatching beach, and must be rounded up in their thousands to be relocated to warmer waters, either to struggle out through the surf on their own, or to be boated out and released directly into the sea!
WARNINGS: ... How can this log have warnings ImPorts rescue baby sea turtles! More information located here.



The long stretch of beach the ImPorts find themselves on is littered with baskets, coolers, styrofoam containers, anything the rescue workers could use to hold the baby sea turtles for transit. Dozens of nests have all emptied of turtles, and gulls roam overhead, looking for opportunities to snatch the stunned baby sea turtles tumbling around in the waves. The shock of the unexpected temperature on their tiny systems renders them incapable of moving, and ImPorts will soon find themselves ushered to the water line to grab tiny, tumbling turtles out of the water.

When enough are collected, a portion of the volunteers and ImPorts are pulled aside to ride with the baby turtles down the coastline to warmer waters, where they'll either be asked to cart the containers down to the waterline to release the baby sea turtles and watch that they don't end up shocked all over again, or instructed to go out to sea on any of the chartered or volunteer-driven boats and release the sea turtles directly into the warmer ocean waters.

Water and lunches will be provided, dinner is haphazard, come as you go. Bright search floodlights are set up on Saturday night so that collection rescue efforts can continue without much interruption. If the same is needed on Sunday night, it will be provided.

For some ImPorts, this will be the first time their arrival isn't treated with great fanfare. People with abilities that assist in the collection and redistribution of the baby sea turtles will get relieved displays of gratitude from attending volunteers and any press drawn to the scene, but much of the fervency seen elsewhere will be largely absent.

Comments

[blondtactician]

"I wonder if they're frightened by what's happening, or they're still just trying to get out to the ocean." Armin has done some research marine animals because of course he has, tapping through his phone to read about leather back sea turtles on the journey out here. There is some argument as to whether or not animals feel the things that humans do, some say they're not capable of it, that research into such things is simply projecting human emotion. Others are dead set on the belief that animals do grieve, do feel something like love and affection, go through life experiencing such things. There's probably no way to know unless people find a way to ask them. "I wonder if they know, and they're still trying."

Armin picks up another turtle, still attempting, carefully, to make his way out to where his hat has drifted away to. He tickles this little turtle on the head, too. "I think they'd say your brains aren't big enough, but I wonder," he says to the distressed little creature before placing in the bucket. Now close enough, he grabs the hat on both sides, but the extra weight of the turtle on the brim causes it to fall back into the water. "No...!"

[lyingheart]

"They're driven. Are they allowed to feel fear past that drive?" There's no movement from Annie, and the sentiment behind her words is directed squarely at Armin. The Scouting Legion would know all about fear in the actions they took... even against the government. Annie wonders how that story ends.

Shaking up the Human Empire. Things that have needed to happen, brought about from interesting sources.

Annie would find any argument about emotion silly. If animals feel, they feel. How complex it is, or to what degree, does it matter? Turtles only needed to be turtles. Humans only needed to be human. If they could communicate in some form, or at least respect each other's right to living, cohabitate instead of destroy, did those thoughts, those emotions, those possible similarities and differences matter?

The turtle plops back into the sea. Annie stays steady, even as the sand is eaten away from under her feet. He'll find that turtle again, or if not that one, another. They weren't able to get far, with the shock of the cool water. Funny how different this temperature was for a reptile over a mammal. Annie found it pleasant, all things considered.

Silent, she watches, and waits. It's about all she can do without turning around and leaving Armin to his sodden straw hat and sinking sea turtle.