A Ron Pollack Turtle Blog

My wife and I, as parents of 5, like to incorporate education into everything. Living in Florida is truly like a year round vacation in which we get to take part in special events that some travel hundreds of miles to witness. When our kids were younger, we spent most weekends at our beach house, located on one of the most beautiful and secluded beaches in Florida's North Clearwater Beach. "Turtle Season" was the favorite season to all of us. I know our kids often saw the turtle areas roped off and had questions about the turtles. So I decided to share some of my favorite turtle facts they can pass on to their kids.

-Weighing less than one ounce, hatchlings are only 2 inches long. -200 to 300 pounds is what they weigh full grown.

-The nest temperature during incubation determines a sea turtle's sex. -Cold will be a boy. -Girls prefer warm nests.

(Ellen, our neighbor that belongs to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, helps monitor 26 miles of Pinellas County's coast line to help rescue or report nesting for the wild life. The combination of releasing injured and sick turtles back into the wild while ensuring as many hatchlings as possible make it into the Gulf helps protect these species from extinction. I like checking out their cmaquarium.org website.)

Here are the Fun Facts! -Florida is home to 80% of Loggerhead turtles on U.S. beaches.

-Sea turtles live their entire lives under the ocean water. -The only time they come ashore is when the female lays her eggs.

The turtles make our Florida beach house one of our favorite Ron Pollack family vacation spots.