A sea turtle lays 90-100 eggs in each clutch and comes up on the beach to lay a clutch 6-10 times per season. Out of all these eggs laid in a season, one of the baby turtles will make it to breeding age (about 30 years old).
Also, genetic diversity is reduced because the increased temperatures in the beaches lead to more females than males being born, rather than the 50/50 split there used to be. This means younger turtles mostly have father and older turtles to mate with. Already they scientists watching the turtles have noticed some narrow gene pool birth defects, like one fin being smaller than the other, and other deformities normally only found in narrow royal bloodlines.
If we find a clutch of eggs that was laid that day, we move them so the poachers can’t find them. But if a clutch is a few days old and the dogs have found it but haven’t gotten everything, we put sticks over it to protect the clutch from more dogs. It’s ok to mark them out this way because poachers aren’t interested in eggs with baby turtles inside.
Digging a hole for a clutch is a bit of an art form. The holes have to be deep and slanted, and then widen at the bottom. The way the turtles lay their eggs, the complete eggs are at the bottom, and the unfertilized eggs, which will never become turtles, are on top. This means that when a dog gets to a clutch, they might fill up without getting all the potential turtle babies.
