Multiple people were busy Monday morning in Fort Pierce rescuing baby sea turtles that were stuck in seaweed from the high surf and strong winds of Hurricane Irma.
The rescue was occurring at 10 a.m. at Jetty Park.
A man named Eric said he spoke with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who told him to put wet sand in a bucket and collect the stranded turtles.
FWC originally said to put the turtles back into the water but later changed their mind.
“Originally FWC told me to put them back into the water, but we noticed that they were just coming right back onto the shore because the waves are just too strong for these little creatures,” said Eric.
He said when other people in the area saw what he was doing, they jumped in to help with the rescue.
The group of people were frantically digging through a massive mound of seaweed with their bare hands to save as many turtles as possible.
By 10 a.m., the group had rescued about 50 to 60 baby sea turtles and nine eggs that were not broken. Unfortunatly they found about 20 small turtles that did not survive Irma.
FWC said they come by later to collect the turtles.
