Turtle Eggs avoid Gulf Oil Danger

Kathy Gault (right), Dustin Varble (center) and Kelley Anderson-Nunley (left) slowly and gently set a Styrofoam cooler containing Loggerhead sea turtle eggs, into a vehicle at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, on August 9, 2010. Mr. Varble and Ms. Gault are endangered species biologists with the 96th Civil Engineer Squadron and Ms. Anderson-Nunley is a contract wildlife technician with Colorado State University. The cooler is sitting on elastic bands of a shipping frame to soften the ride. Because of the critical attachment of the embryo to the inside of the eggshell, the eggs must be gently moved. With equal care the transportation to the Atlantic coast is critical and gentle. The eggs will then be carefully driven to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department office in Panama City, where a specialized FedEx vehicle will take it to a controlled climate facility on the Atlantic coast. They will be allowed to hatch in the cooler. Wildlife technicians will then release them into the ocean. (U.S. Air Force photo/Lance Cheung)