NEW ORLEANS – Twenty-one 11-month-old turtles are being returned to the Louisiana barrier island where their mothers laid the eggs from which they hatched.
The diamondback terrapin nests were dug up to protect the eggs during restoration of Cheniere Ronquille after the oil spill of 2010. Now that work is finished. The 4- to 5-inch (10-centimeter)-long turtles were hatched and raised by volunteers, and will return home Thursday.
Diamondback terrapins live along the coast from Texas to New England. They may be best known as the turtles that stop traffic at New York's JFK Airport when females trundle across the tarmac to look for sandy ground to dig their nests.
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