By Chester Moore, Jr.

Last week our journey through the “Wild Gulf”-our summer long quest to raise awareness to wildlife of the Gulf of Mexico paid a visit to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) sea turtle facility at Galveston, TX.

Since 1978, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has been participating in an international Sea Turtle recovery program. Currently the NMFS Galveston Sea Turtle Facility is participating in a variety of projects including injured and sick turtle rehabilitation, satellite tracking of wild turtles and numerous studies involving Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs).

Loggerheads are the most abundant sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico but that doesn’t mean their populations are healthy. They are down to around three percent of estimated historic levels.

This baby loggerhead is one of hundreds at the facility. They are hatched from eggs taken in the wild in Florida, brought to Galveston, raised up to two years of age and released back into the Florida. Gulf.

(To submit photos to the Critter Cam project, e-mail them to chester@kingdomzoo.com. Put “Critter Cam” in the subject line.)