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Music

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NARRATOR: Hundreds of baby sea turtles are expected to take an unusual course to the ocean this

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season. Environmental specialists from several federal agencies are working with FedEX to move

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turtle nests from the oil-threatened beaches of the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic coast in hopes of

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improving the survival chances for the endangered species.

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the

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National Park Service, NOAA, FedEx and conservationists are taking part in this unprecedented effort

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to move some 700 nests hundreds of miles to NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

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The nests include sea turtles from several threatened or endangered species, including loggerheads,

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Kemp's ridley, leatherback, and green sea turtles.

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Each egg is taken carefully by hand from a nest as it is excavated. The eggs are placed into

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Styrofoam boxes and then taken by FedEx on special trucks to Kennedy.

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Jane Provancha of Innovative Health Applications is the leading biologist for NASA's Kennedy Space

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Center hatchery. She and her team watch over the nests for signs of the hatchlings.

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Jane Provancha: "The sign that these animals are starting to pip and come and prepare to emerge

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over the next two days is very big, very big. Good news. This means they survived the excavation

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process, they survived the trip across the state of Florida, they made it into our facility and they are

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doing what they normally would do, and this is, this is just great. Good stuff."

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NARRATOR: The turtles are handled just as delicately as they are readied to be released.

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Jane Provancha: "…we'll take the hatchlings and put them in here. We'll reduce the amount of sand

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because it's too heavy. We'll put them in here and we'll take them to the beach in this."

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NARRATOR: Once they've hatched and are considered ready to make the trip, the turtles are taken

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to beaches along a 100-mile stretch of Florida's Atlantic Coast and set free in the surf.

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Once in the ocean, the turtles generally make their way to developmental habitats offshore where