A Sarasota, Fla. police officer and a group of good Samaritans may have broken the law to save a bale of almost 100 newly hatched sea turtles after they took matters into their own hands to get the turtles to sea.
Officer Derek Conley was on a late-night patrol last weekend when he saw a hotel parking lot filled with wayward sea turtle hatchlings, the Tampa Bay Tribune reported.
A passerby reportedly tipped Conley off to even more of the hatchlings scampering down the sidewalk.
"They were coming into the front door, into the hotel itself," Conley said of the turtles. He enlisted the help of hotel security workers and two hotel guests to get the turtles back to where they belonged.
"You're not really expecting to see anything like this ... and you don't necessarily know what to do," he said at a news conference reported on by the Tribune, "but common sense kind of kicked in for all of us."
Conley and the others gathered up about 70 turtles and took them to the beach nearby and released them into the water. Upon returning to the scene, they found about more hatchlings, which were collected and released.
A news release from the City of Sarasota Police Department said that between 90 and 100 turtles were rescued. Conley found three dead hatchlings.
Sea turtles nest on the beaches of Florida's Gulf Coast between May 1 and October 31. A number of species use the state's sandy beaches to lay eggs, including green turtles, loggerheads, hawksbills, leatherbacks and the rare Kemp's Ridley. Turtles make as many as 84,000 nests on Florida beaches each year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
According to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, it is "against the law to touch or disturb nesting sea turtles, hatchlings, or their nests. Sea turtles are protected by both the Federal Endangered Species Act and the Florida Marine Protection Act."
The Tribune reported that wildlife officials said that Conley did the right thing considering the circumstances.