Gulf oil spill: Sea turtle swims through oil to nest on Alabama beach June 13, 2010

Gulf oil spill: Sea turtle swims through oil to nest on Alabama beach June 13, 2010

[link to latimesblogs.latimes.com]

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On the shores of southern Alabama, there was a disaster, and a miracle: The worst oil since the Deepwater Horizon blowout washed ashore late Saturday, even as a sea turtle swam through the mess and laid a new nest on shore.

It got worse: Though motorized vehicles are not supposed to be used in cleanup in the area used by the turtles, the beach was soon swarming with all-terrain vehicles and heavy equipment. One of the vehicles ran over the nest, said Mike Reynolds of Share the Beach, whose volunteers patrol the 47 miles of sandy beach west of the Florida border to find and protect new turtle nests.

Then came the good news: Volunteers were able to find the nest, safely dig up the 127 new ping-pong-ball-sized eggs and rebury them in a safe location. The nest, which is the first to be laid in the area since the oil spill began, will be fenced off to protect the eggs until they hatch in about two months.

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