Sea turtle nesting grounds

It has been some time since anything has been posted to the blog. Since it is summer in the northern hemisphere a search for sea turtle beaches might be a worth while highlight to a summer vacation. First up let me tell you that sea turtle eggs hatch in the warm sands of only a few of the beaches in the world. Here is a list of some of them:

• the Brunswick Islands  North Carolina
• south west Florida coast
• north coast of Australia
• South Pardre Island - Texas

Almost all of them are located next to warm shallow ocean areas.

Watching sea turtles hatch is a night time activity. Conservation groups like to educate and help the general public learn and observe the nightly hatching events that take place a few months each year. You can view a video of sea turtles hatching in North Carolina at this website.

Generally no added light is allowed in the area of the hatching so keep your flashlights at home. A good idea would be to choose a night when the moon is bright enough to allow viewing of the event under natural night time light.

Enjoy the summer and remember to not harm the coastal wildlife. Take photos and memories with you and leave everything else alone.

Beach house

Today we have a guest blogger

Contribution by Stevie Kirby

My husband and I recently bought a beach house. We are almost to the point of retirement, and we have been discussing over the last several years where we would like to spend our golden years. We have two children, both of whom have married and live on opposite sides of the country. We have moved several times due to my husband’s job, spending the last four years in New York. We would like to move permanently to our beach house after my husband retires. He is roughly eight months from that point now. I have always loved the beach, and our family vacationed there often when our children were young. We spent many summers on the beaches of southern Virginia. We have thought about trying to use a fixed-rate for our home energy as we have done with our home in New York, which we found through Http://NEWYORKenergyrates.com. However, we will have to wait and see if that makes the most sense financially. I know that my husband is looking forward to fishing and relaxing in the sand. He has worked very hard over the years in the business world, and we are finally going to be able to sit back and relax.

Handy tool for when you are on a boat

If you were out hiking, you would take your cell phone, water and a first aid kit. So what would you take if you were going out on a boat? One handy item is a pocket knife and keep it in your pocket. I am not talking about a utility knife that you open boxes with but a study knife capable of cutting through ropes.

Don't keep the pocket knife in your purse or bag, you need to keep it on you. If you fall overboard and should need it, you have it with you. Nothing worse than bringing something you need on a trip and getting separated from it when you need it the most.

Weird ads showing up

I just changed the layout of the blog and for some odd reason I am getting Google ads for fast food places, travel and hoodia diet pills. I guess the Google ad bot can't figure out that this is a sea life blog, not sea food blog. I guess I had better put the words whales, boats, ocean and aquariums in this post so it gets a better idea.

An underwater hotel

How's this for something interesting on your next vacation? An underwater hotel. The hotel is located in Turkey. This is not your typical log cabin in the woods type of vacation. You won't find log furniture or stuffed animals adorning the dinning room wall but you will find the most spectacular scenery you have ever seen from a window or your bed.

Water proofing your camera

We now live in an age of paperless photos. Where we don't have to bother with film, film developing nor printing them those photos out is we don't want to, that's what digital frames are for. But what about making sure your camera is functioning in surroundings like the beach, on a boat or near a body of water. Sure, you say that you won't get the camera wet or drop it in the water, but what about air born moisture?

People that live close to the ocean will tell you that their electronic devices will corrode after being exposed to salt laden ocean air. If you only go to the ocean once in a great while your camera should be fine but if you live or visit the coast on a weekly basis then I would look into getting a camera that was more resistant to moisture and even better if it was designed for use near or in salt water.

Is 16 too young to do anything solo?

If you have been following the news about the 16 year old girl that attempted to sail around the world you would know that her attempt has ended. After a storm left her sail boat's mast broken, she had to end her trip. The controversy surrounding her age is by far over shadowing her dream. I have seen way too many stories and polls online saying she is too young to attempt such a feat. To them I say phooey and here is why:

Society has a short memory. Much of our history is forged on people under the age of 18 leading armies, making discoveries and doing extraordinary feats. If you want a short refresher course in history just check out this page. Of course that does not take into account that only 200 years ago people were often married and had started families by the age of 16. Kings and Queens were often put in charge of armies at very young ages. It was not uncommon that Kings married a "woman" that was only 12 and that the child bride outlived the King and took over running the kingdom.

Nature has made humans sexually mature at the age of 13-14 years of age. Normally when a mammal is strong enough and able enough to reproduce we call them adults. So why the controversy over a 16 year old girl who wants to accomplish something in her young life. Maybe it is not her age but because she is a girl. After all, her brother did the same thing last year and I don't remember an outcry about him. Of course he is a "man" when he did something young.

Have we not only a double standard about sex but age as well?

Taking my PDA with me everywhere

I guess I am a cheapskate when it come to phones and gadgets. All of my friends have iPhones and iPods but I have something better, an older PDA. You know one of those palm sized computers. I have an HP which can connect to the internet - for free and play music and I can watch videos but I can also take notes, pictures and make audio comments.

That little PDA has gone with me everywhere, from the beach to the classroom and taking notes for labs. I can even add a memory card and operate some good sized software programs on it. My one came with Excel, Word and project management software. I know someone that works in a hospital and has a PDA with a medical reference library on it.

I love my little outdated and non-phone PDA. It works for me.

Stranded out on a lake

Don't you just love machinery? It, machinery, is a necessary evil, it is great when it works like it is suppose to but a pure devil when it breaks down. I have been out on 2 boats that have had engine problems when out on the water. Thankfully they were both on lakes and not out at sea.

The panic that sets in on people that have not been out very often on boats, will amaze you. They didn't know that the boat owners almost always have a way to get back to shore. If they don't then they don't belong out on the lake.

They were not small vessels either. One boat was owned by a friend and the other one by the state fish and game. The state ha their own mechanics to take care of those types of breakdowns but my friend had the forethought of carrying mechanical breakdown insurance on his boat.

Machinery something I use yet despise.

Moving an aquarium

How do you move your home aquarium full of fish? After you said "carefully" what else? Would you call some moving companies New York city? Or call your local pet store for advice? I hope you said the pet store. They could not only advise you on the types of containers or bags to house your fish in during the move but also the amount of oxygen they would require.

Keep in mind that the tank your fish will go into after the move should be "aged" for at least 24 hours prior to the fish being added. Planning for that you might have to move much of the original tank water with the fish.

If you plan ahead for the move and are prepared, your fish will survive the move.

Shapes at the seashore

In my journeys to the coast I don't always pack food. This leads me to frequent many of the small eateries along the coast. Food varies from a quick sandwich at a stand up counter to some fancy restaurants along the way.

Some of the restaurants go out of their way with the ocean decorations. For example here is a picture of a stone sink that was in one of the restrooms.

Other decorations that are common are shells embedded into various furniture like tabletops and the top part of the backs of chairs. Of course I always see the trophy fish hanging on the wall - which upsets me no end but that is another post entirely.

Walking in the dunes

Sand dunes are a wonderful feature found at many west coast beaches. Walking those dunes I have seen many kinds of wildlife as well as domesticated animals that have gone feral. Cats and rats are a common sight along with the native shore birds. I can tell you one thing about walking the dunes - it is better for your body than the best weight loss supplements on the market. You legs, lungs and heart will get a workout of your life. Remember to take plenty of fresh drinking water with you when you are walking on the dunes.

My dream vacation

I have been on a few long ocean cruises and for someone who loves the sea so much I am sad to say that I get seasick. Yep, that's me, puking up my guts on board a ship even if it is in dock. Small vessels I have better luck with and row boats don't affect me at all. Even white water rafting has no ill affect. It is those large ships with the steady rolling action over time that makes me sick.

My dream vacation does involve the sea but not traveling by ship to get there. My vacation would involve the South Pacific islands of Fiji and Pango Pango (American Samoa). I have visited Pango Pango many years ago and would love to go back. I ended up visiting there because of one of those weird travel deals. At the time it was cheaper to fly from Hawaii to Pango Pango then on to Auckland, NZ rather than straight from Hawaii to Auckland.

The stop over in Pango Pango was about 15 hours but it gave me time to tour part of the island and see the clear waters that surrounded it. I have never been to Fiji and have friends that lived there.