Love Handles

We speak often of sea turtles nesting and eggs hatching, but have you ever stopped to think of the difficulties involved in the sea turtle mating required to produce these fertile eggs? Round, slippery shell? Ocean waves? Never fear - Mother Nature has provided the male sea turtle with "spurs" on his front flippers that he hooks into the female's plastron to provide stability. On one of his early morning beach walks, Jim Angy happened upon a lovely green sea turtle returning to the ocean after nesting and got this perfect picture of the holes left in her shell during mating - one over each front flipper. (Click on photo to enlarge)