The appearance of a desert tortoise moseying about their classroom before returning to the warmth of the sunlamp in its cage might inspire students in Scott Crenshaws advanced-placement biology class to think about a coming trip of their own to a warmer place.

A majority of the students will travel late this spring to help a relative of the tortoise. Students Adam Withers, Cate Gwin, Audrey Osborn, Samantha Weiss, Bailey Smith, Jessie Katzer, Katie Kehl, Jessie Katzer and Heidi Halford will travel with Crenshaw and chaperons to the Gulf Coast from May 29 through June 3 to help with efforts to expand the numbers of endangered sea turtles.

It may sound like a vacation, but Crenshaw insists the students will be preoccupied with educational pursuits during their time at Manasoto Key, Fla., which is about 45 minutes south of Tampa.

The primary purpose of the trip will be to help collect information during the annual nesting of the sea turtles. Crenshaw said the students will arrive at Manasota Key during the loggerhead turtles nesting period and will be tasked with tagging mothers as they make their way to nesting sites and marking the sites of new nests. Females, which reach about 3 feet in length and weigh from 200 to 400 pounds, return to their nesting beaches every two to four years to lay eggs in anywhere from four to seven nests during the season.

We will be working with the Coastal Wildlife Club, Crenshaw said. Very few organizations get permission to tag the turtles, so we are very fortunate to go on this trip.

The students will be on the beach at 5 a.m. looking for new nesting sites to mark and will return later in the day to tag the flippers of adult mothers or epoxy GPS tracking devices to the backs of a select few.

When not involved with the turtle project, the students will walk the beach looking for fossilized shark teeth and visit a marine museum, Crenshaw said.

The idea for the trip stemmed from Crenshaws sharing his turtle tagging experiences with the students.

We asked him, Why cant the class go? senior Heidi Halford said. Mr. Crenshaw went to the Board of Education last fall and got permission for us to go.

Other commitments are preventing some students from going, but those who are making the trip have been busy raising money. The latest effort was a BBQ fundraiser at Fridays Baldwin High School boys basketball game.

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Baldwin High School biology students planning trip to help save sea turtles